Tomorrow May Never Come
by daywallker
Summary: "You are neither my brother, Father nor Husband. Whats makes you think you have any claim to me?" Isobella Marino finds out her life isn't her's to live and she doesn't take it lightly.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is my first fanction in this gendra, I'm not exactly the best writer nor is english my first language, but I'm trying. I wasn't planning on posting this, but I just really liked where the story was going and thought that having people reading it would motivate me to finish it. I'm hoping that this will get reviews, feel free to write flames if you must, i would just like an opinion on this. **

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><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

I ran on the roof of the beautiful city of Florence keeping a sharp eye out for my favourite twosome, I've already checked the taverns and brothels I knew without venturing too far into the dangers zone where thieves and murders stayed. The sun was about to set soon and I was starting to get tired of searching for the Auditore brothers. Mama and papa would get worried and yell at me again for staying out running around so late, but I had a job to do. I spotted a doctore stand I recognized very well, Federico would always come here when he was trying to hide that he gotten into another fight and this doctor was nice compared to the other wild beaked healer.

"hola messere" I said to the man in black

"well 'hola' to you too little one, you didn't get hurt fallowing around Federico and Ezio now did you?" he asked me carefully surveying me from behind his mask, I shook my head to tell him I was fine.

"Have you seen Federico and Ezio today?" I asked him

"No, not yet, I heard there was a fight nearby though, I'm sure they`ll show up here eventually"

"Do you mind if I wait with you mesere?'' I asked as nicely as possible. I could see his eyes squinting in wrinkles; he was probably smiling behind his mask.

I remember the first time I meet this man, he looked like a giant bird ready to attack people at any moment but I soon found out he was there to help. When I asked him why he was wearing a costume in broad daylight when it wasn't Carnavale, he simply chuckled ruffling my raven hair and said that the church didn't like doctors and that his family would be in trouble if they ever found out that he was one. I found the idea of a man being forced to hide his identity when he only wanted to help ridiculous, but then again, the church though that little girls didn't read or write either because they were stupid although both Claudia and I could, so I didn't like them very much. Suddenly a loud thud came from the roof near me and two tall shadows came out of the darkness revealing to be the two boys I've been searching for all afternoon. I sat near the doctor as he pressed his concern to the boys in shock looking at Ezio's bloody face, his lip was probably torn from a punch or something because the blood was so thick that it drizzled down his jaw all the way down to his shirt

"I thought you knew how to fight Ezio!" I said to him trying to make him mad like I always did, I heard Federico laughing behind him

"He thinks he's invincible! Please help him doctor his pretty his face is his only asset" mused my favourite brother. Ezio murmured an insult to his brother as he turned to the doctor for treatment. I giggled.

"At least you wont have to worry about an accidental nephew if his face turns bad so don't worry Federico!" I mused behind him

" Your too cute" he said pinching my cheek. I hated having my cheeks pinched, especially by him, I wasn't a child anymore I have just turned 11 a couple of days ago and mother and father were probably scared that some random boy in our guild would come woo me away and make me his wife even if I told them it wasn't happening. Federico on the on other hand I wouldn't mind marrying, his mother and sister always treated me like their own trying to force me into dresses while my mom laugh along, his father always looked at me with much joy in his eyes and constantly complemented me on my observation skills and his younger brother was the nicest boy I met after Federico himself, as for the bloodied one in front of me, he was my personal punching bag but not my least favourite Auditore.

"Your mother is looking for you!" I said to him pushing his hand away in annoyance " Do you have any idea how long I've been searching for you two and now I find out you got into a fight and damaged your goods, who's suppose to continue on the Auditore name now?" I mused

"No one asked you to look strozzo!" said Ezio from the other side of the doctor

" I didn't do it for you puttana, I did it for the pecan cake Annetta is making for me!" I replied "all I need is to take one of you too home and that piece of sweetness is all mine!" I laughed

The doctor was done with Ezio and allowed us to move away, I gave him a small wave before fallowing the boys, they were probably the man's best costumers. There was a scar on Ezio's lip where he had been hit, but nothing too serious, a red bruise here and there, but the scar was probably the only permanent thing. It wasn't long until they started playing around again, this time they wanted to race, for what I don't know, I didn't care enough to ask I just fallowed them, at a much slower speed than usual, to the top of the church. The view of the city was beautiful this time of night, the sun was slowly setting with rays of orange a green and blues hung on the horizon, the city was quietly settling down and children where running home for their supper, it would have been almost romantic if Ezio wasn't there to ruin it for me. I scooted a little bit closer to him and whispered

"Shouldn't you be on your way to meet someone, I know I'm not the best girl for this" He gave me a weird look before smirking

" I understand, just remember pregnancies can be bad for little girls" he whispered to me, I stood there all red not knowing how to answer, maybe it was the fact that he just accused me of wanting to bed his brother.

"Not funny Ezio, now go run to your Cristina, just stay away from the Vieri guards their still looking for you" Federico said to Ezio before he jumped off the leaver down to a stack of hay. Then it hit me, Ezio n Federico got into a fight with the murderer son. I brought my entire body behind me forcing all my strength to my fist and hit Federico as hard I could.

" You fought the Pazzi! Are you stupid!"

I didn't like eating supper with the Auditore's but my parents had different plans for me, there I was completely underdressed next to beautiful Claudia who kept bragging on and on about her betrothed Ducio. Luckily, I was in my own little world enjoying the last bid of the pecan cake I had gotten made for me after succeeding on bringing one boy home. Papa and Messer Auditore had some kind of special friendship. They always talked in their office about secret plans and never did tell mama or Maria anything. Occasionally, they would have Federico in there with them too. I remember one night I decided to listen in on their secret conversation, but I got caught as soon as I put my ear on the door, in a rather embarrassing matter may I add.

My parents were circus performers, we always traveled from city to city country to country performing for the people there. They didn't make much money and I didn't bother asking for toys, the other travellers would always make me little wooden figurine that I would play with as a child. My father was probably French, he's a tall man with dark green eyes and light golden hair, and he had a habit of scowling me in French whenever I didn't do my reading and finish the homework he had given me. My mother on the other hand was Spanish, she has the most beautiful hair dark brown hair with hints of gold coming through and her eyes are a deep ocean blue, she's pretty tall for a woman as well I don't know why I'm so short compared to them. They've been spending most of their time in France, a small city near the coast of Spain where they meet and I was born, but mothers parents didn't approve of my papa so they ran away with the circus.

Once dinner was finished I went up on the roof trying to enjoy a bit on peace before Petruccio attacked me with one of his games. I heard from his parents that he was sick and wasn't to go outside but the way he played made me think otherwise, he had ways of making their family room into a battlefield, he would flip the couches and use them as shield while he threw pillows as cannons, then would attack with little wooden swords his brothers used to play with as kids. The games were pretty fun, but I was too full to play with him and I was sure Annetta was too tired to clean after us. I've been in Italia for almost 3 years now I believe, my first time in Firenze was a blur to me cause I didn't understand most people, they all spoke too fast and looked at me as if I was dirty so I didn't pay them any mind, then we got to Venice, during carnavale and I thought it was beautiful. There was so much colors and so much money came floating into our guild, they didn't have to work for a months after. Sadly, we had to come back to Firenze. We've been here for almost two years now, occasionally leaving for carnavale, but things were allot better than before, I leaned Italian, adding that to my repertoire that already contained Spanish and French, and meet the Auditore and Federico.

Federico was absolutely gorgeous in my eyes, he was smart and witty like a fox, yet soft and sweet like candy. He was much nicer than Ezio, but very much like him as well. He habit of visiting taverns and brothels in the middle of the night and it drove his parents wild, not to mention his funny habit of procrastinating that made him lose this job at the bank. I remember when I first met him, he kissed my hand and called me bella, I was swooned I actually blushed. There was some noise quietly coming on the roof, I jumped getting ready to attack thinking it was a thief but found Federico in a loose fennel shirt slowly approaching me.

"Are you okay, Iso, you've been quiet all night long" he asked me his voice soft and hoarse.

"I'm just thinking" I answered not really looking at him as I lay back down on the roof. He lay on his side beside me with his head on his hand looking down at me.

"About what?" he asked quietly. My heartbeat increased at the sound of his voice so close to me, I could almost feel his breathe on my face. I thanked the heavens the sky was dark at the moment to hide my crimson face, but still refused to look directly at him. There was a moment of silence that passed between us before I started speaking again.

"What were you thinking fighting de Pazzi, don't you know the father is accused of murder. What devil made you and your brother decide to duel Vieri!" I almost yelled at him

"It was Ezio's idea" he grumbled "and why are you so mad about anyways cara? You know all we do is cause trouble" he said lightly as lay on his back next to me.

"Cause I worry about you, and most importantly, your mother's health" I heard him chuckle again

"How old are again?" he mused "you sound like my wife." That made me angry, I knew that he was much older than me but that didn't stop me from actually liking the man. He knew of my strong feelings for him and toys with my emotions whispering words in my ears then rips my heart out the next second.

" I'm old enough to be married now Federico, and old enough to have children as well. So excuse me if I worry for my friends life when their dealing with danger!" I spat at him getting up abruptly. Suddenly he took hold of my wrist and pulled me towards his chest.

"Mi dispiace cara" he said, his words vibrating through his chest "Your growing to into such a fine woman, I fear you will be taken from us"

"I've already promised myself to a man" I whispered hoping he wouldn't hear me

"Really! And who is that lucky man?" he growled

" Ummmm... I think you know him very well" I laughed at him. He tighten his arms around me, playing games with my heart like he always does. We stayed up on the roof talking and laughing with one another, all the anger was gone from my mind before I fell asleep there using his arm as my pillow.

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><p><strong>End of the first chapter, yippe! I do have a reason for making Isobella so young and this will be an Ezio X OC story so please bare with the first couple of chapters, I just really want readers to understand the character since we all know Ezio's story. please review I really really want to know what you think! Graci a Mile!<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: This might be totally weird and plain sad,BUT! I got 2 "reviews" and 106 hits in 2 days and I'm soooooooooo Happy! loooool. But seriously I'm just happy people are looking at my story, period! Also, I feel absolutly disgusted that I now know what lolocon means TT-TT thats just gross. Also G-rayim (I totally know whre you got that lool) no this wont be one of those stories that fallow the game every step of the way, there are some twist but it is somewhat OC centric at the beginning.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

A couple days have passed and I haven't seen much of Federico, even Ezio was rather quiet and stayed out of trouble. Mother and father on the other hand were pretty busy planning something behind my back, whenever I tried talking to papa about my acrobatics training mama would always pull me off of him saying Fabio would train me.

Fabio was an Italian circus man and incredibly talented, but he sometimes gave me the feeling that he didn't like me being in Italia, never the less I trained with him and his younger brother. Fabio was the typical tall dark n handsome man, he had long greasy hair that stood around his ears and piercing dark, almost black, eyes; he was also very well built, but the man lacked mannerism. He would often joke about how I was adopting because I looked nothing like my parents and would insult the Auditore because they were noblemen. His brother, although much younger, was a young blond boy with blue eyes that he adopted when he was passing in France.

I had also tried finding papa in The Auditore home, I always got Petruccio or Ezio instead. One day I caught a glimpse of him while playing with Ezio and his younger brother after we had completely demolished the well decorated room that was Ezio's. He was with Federico and messer Auditore talking in a rather hushed tone, I tried getting to them to ask what's going on, but Ezio attacked me with a set of pillows while his brother tickled me to near death. Later that day I was joking with Ezio after a tired Petruccio went to sleep when the sound of sniffling cried caught his attention.

To my shock, it was Claudia, she was sitting in her yard holding a flower in her hand, with her head down looking at her feet trying to represses her tears, Claudia wasn't one to cry like other girls.

"what's wrong sorella?" asked Ezio sitting next to her slowly patting her on the back. I chose to crouch in front of her.

"It's Ducio, the other girls" she cried "they said he's been, unfaithful" she sniffed

"Those harpies!" he said "They're just jealous of you" he said. I sat next to her and put my hand on her back to comfort her.

"But Ezio" she said dropping the flower and bringing her hands to her face "I love him" she wailed.

"No! You just think you did."

Suddenly her eyes flashed with anger, her hands were brought to a fist and her voice became a low feral growl.

"Then he should pay for what he's done." She stated.

I loved Claudia like a sister, but I knew that from the moment that I would never want to be on her bad side. I stayed by her though, as she cried more, losing the one she thought she loved must have been hard, but her crying was started to get on my nerve. I fought the feeling to tell her to suck it up and grow up, I really hated that she was crying over a boy. I quietly walked her inside the house to help her wash her face from tears when I saw my father and Federico walking out of Giovanni's study.

"Oh dear, what happened!" asked my father shocked

"Boy trouble" I tried to explain " Ezio went to take care of it" I said as Federico came to hug his sister, comforting her as well.

"_La pauvre, son premier coeur briser (_Oh dear, her first heartbreak_)_" said my father shaking his head and began to walk away. I shot a small glance at Claudia before walking to my father

" _Papa, que-ce qui ce passe?_ (Daddy, What's going on?)"

"_ Que ce que tu veux dire ma belle?_" (What do you mean sweaty?)" he asked me with furrow brows.

"_ Que ce que vous me cachez, toi et maman?_(What have you and mother been up to?)"I asked him as soft as I could. He chukled.

"_Rien ma puce._ (Nothing little one)"

"_S'il te plait, je commence a avoir peur._(I'm starting to get scared, dad)"

"_Ne T'inquiete pas cheri._(Don't Worry sweetheart)"he said ruffling my hair.

_"Est-ce qu'on va partir? (_Are we leaving?_)" _

_"Non, j'aissayes d'aider un vielle ami._ (I'm trying to help out an old friend)"He informed me and walked off.

"Papa!" I yelled at him grabbing his arm _"Est-ce que tous ira bien? (_Is everything gonna be okay?)" I asked him.

_"Mais bien sur cheri, tout ira bien_(But of course darling everything will be alright)" he said pinching my nose with a smile before he stepped out.

I walked back to Claudia telling her oldest brother what happened, I could see the anger in his eyes as well as he led her into the house gesturing me to fallow. We stayed by Claudia trying to point out the many flaws that Ducio possessed to make her feel better, it was something Ezio and I have been doing for while now, from the moment I met him I knew he would get in trouble with one of the was a vermin to say to say the least, The first words he had said about me was that I was a dirty piglet, and i kicked him in the between the legs for that. It almost got me executed. After that incident Claudia had not talked to me for a month and Ezio and I became friends. I smiled at the thought of what Ezio could be doing to him at the moment, Neither of us liked him, and Federico was too nice to admit that he didn't like him as much as we did, but truthfully Claudia's better off without him.

A couple of hours passed and Claudia went to Help Annetta with supper, I took the opportunity to leave and find my parents at the inn, but It was already dark out.

"Walk me home" I asked Federico as I stood

"Are you scared?" he mused

"Yeah" I said with a blank face before I walked towards the door. Soon enough, Federico was by my side looking at me with furrowed brows.

"_Che cosa_? (what is it?)" he asked "is this about what you said to your father?" I shook my head and kept walking with him beside me in silence.

"Bella" he tried, but my mouth stayed closed. I felt his hand around my shoulder as he turned me around and brought his head to level with mine. "Talk to me per favour" he pleaded.

I pushed his hands off of me and crossed my arms bringing my mouth to a pout.

"I'm mad" I stated.

He gave a small laugh. I could see his hands coming towards my cheeks probably getting ready to pinch it so I moved away. I furrowed my eyebrows making it clear once again that I was really mad.

"Isobella" he whined "what did I do?"

"What do you take me for?" I asked him "what am I to you? A stepping stone! A thorn in your way! A stupid kid that just fallows you around like an idiot!" I nearly yelled at him. I don't know what came over me but I had this sudden urge to scream and yell at him. I was mad for no apparent reason. Maybe it was Claudia's crying that made me this way but I was feeling strange. Federico cautiously approached me trying to calm me down.

"No, no! Your someone I dearly care about-" he started, but I cut him off

"Like a sister I presume!" He smile at me again

"I guess I can't say no, I do care about you like I care for Claudia. You're still young, and whether you like it or not you're not old enough to be married or have children, childbirth is not a pretty thing trust me, I've seen it before." He said to me wincing.

"Then I'm just wasting my time" I said quietly. This time he didn't smile, he just came closer to me and hugged me. I placed my head on his chest listening to his rhythmic heartbeat without moving my arms to hug him back.

"I can't say I will keep my promise, but I will wait for you to become a woman" he said to me softly. I had waited to hear those words for almost 3 years now, just that he would try and wait for me. "Love is unpredictable, sweetheart, so if it happens to me while we're waiting, don't be mad at me. Ok?" he asked still holding me. By now tears were streaming down my face, I don't know if they were tears of joy or if I was sad that Federico had just told me to stop and wait, but I was crying.

We silently walked all the rest of the way to the small inn my family was staying at. He turned to me again, wipes my tears and kissed my forehead in the most brotherly matter. He waited until I made my way inside to finally walk off and head home. I felt bad for yelling at him now.

The rest of the night was particularly difficult for me, there were a series of knots forming in my lower abdomen and my head was buzzing with a white noise that didn't seem to fade. The smell of food coming from Fabio's place was absolutely disgusting, I felt like he was mixing dirt and blood with dried and rotten cheese. While I knew that his companion was an excellent cook and that food smelled like death! Noise was also something I had become sensitive to, when mama entered the room and the door squeaked I crouched even further into my foetal position and put my hands over my head.

"Ma baby! Que passa!" she said running to my side. I tried opening my eyes to get a good look at her face.

"My stomach hurts" I said to her. She tried to get me out of my foetal position to get a better look at my stomach, slowly her worry lines soften as she looked at me legs

"I'll get the bath ready for you sweetie, you've finally become a woman now" she said giving me a soft kiss on the forehead before walking off.

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><p><strong>I'm one of those readers who finishes a book in a couple of days so I posted another chapter because I'M SOO SYCHED PEOPLE ARE TAKING INTEREST IN MY STORY!<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: This chapter is a bit long then the others because I wrote it by hand at first, I think it turned out generally better than the other 2. Please let me know what you think, even flames can help at this point. Also, lets keep the reviews, well, G rated in away, I have a very active imagination for a 20year old. **

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><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

The pain subsided the next morning, mama's bath helped a lot as well. She explained to me, later on in the night, that this meant I was able to have children now, so I was to be careful with my actions. I didn't understand what she meant though. I didn't tell the boys what had happened, but I told Claudia, and I honestly regret it now. She took me to her room and started dressing me and painting my face with some white stuff.

"I know you don't like this stuff, but its tradition" she exclaimed. Claudia was older than me so I didn't say more. In nothing more than 3 short hours, 3 hours of hell, I was dressed in her finest dress of her younger days and a ton of jewellery that made my body heavy. The dress she put on me was a teal blue color embroiled with small oval shaped blue gems, the top chemise was of sparkling silver and the long puffed sleeves were held together by the gems.

"The dress makes your eyes stand out" she told me. My eyes were a little scary for most people, they were a light dull grey and my skin was really tanned from my constant outdoors stays so they stood out like a thief robbing a bank in daylight. Looking in the mirror, I saw her trying to untangle my black hair, there was a set of beautiful golden earrings and necklace on me, my face was a pasty white color while my grey eyes were painted with kohl. Finally after she was done with my hair, she started pinning a blue scarf around most of it. When she was done, my legs were num by the constant sitting and my butt hurt me too. Mother and Maria joined us and took us around the market to celebrate. I really didn't understand what there was to celebrate when I was bleeding, but I went along with them quietly trying my best to walk straight.

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><p>We came back to the palazzo in late afternoon, I was drained of energy and life force. Apparently, being a woman meant you had walk around the marketplace in shoes that were much smaller than your feet, wrapped in a big hot dress. You had to argue with merchants about their fruits being too expensive and lie, a lot! Then talk about other women behind their back, not to mention standing there like an idiot making loving eyes to have young noble boys notice you. So far, I didn't like being a woman, I would easily go back to that careless little girl Federico babied if I had to live another day of this. As we entered the house, I bumped into a hurrying Ezio carrying envelops.<p>

"Watch where you going" I almost yelled "Puttana!" I said that part in a soft hushed voice in hope that the others wouldn't hear it.

"Mi dispiache tesora, I didn't see you there" he said helping me up. As I got my back up on my feet, he still had my hand in his, slowly he brought it up to his lips and gave it a soft caress. "I'm Ezio, Claudia's brother" he introduced himself to me.

The look in my eyes must have been hilarious, because I could see water building up in Ezio's eyes. For a second, I believe he was serious and didn't recognise me, but as soon as the others walked away. "Even if you look ridiculous, congratulations" He said to me ." You might actually look like a beautiful woman one day" he winked at me. I shoved his hand away from mine and gave him a pout.

_"Testa di merda (shithead)"_ I said to him crossing my arms

"And you look like a clown, why didn't you tell me your family was about to give a show in Firenze" he laughed at me. I was ready to leave just before I heard his voice.

I was going to leave him be this afternoon and pretend to be older than him for a just a day, but screw this I'm done being a woman. I didn't choose to look like a clown for the world to see and I was already easily irritable. I pulled the sleeves of my dress up and turn to him as fast as I could, sadly my dress decided it was impolite for a lady to move in such matter and twisted around my legs bringing me to the floor.

"_Nessuno me lo ficca in culo_! (Nobody fucks me up the ass!)" I tried wiggling out the dress to get at him

He stood over me with his eyes full of joy "Looks like I just did"

"You are dead Ezio Auditore!" I yelled at him as I watched him run out the door laughing, while I stayed on the ground unable to move.

The rest of the afternoon was a blur. After I went to talk to messer Auditore, I decided it was best to avoid anyone else's cryptic words. I thought back to Giovanni's words

"Mia cara, I know your too young to understand this, but you will one day" he said sitting behind his desk. "I just hope that day will come later for you than it did for me" he opened one of the drawers of his table and pulled out a small folded parchment and gave it to me.

"What do you mean?" I asked him. When he called me into his office, I was sure I was in trouble. Giovanni, unlike his wife and kids, didn't really talk to me much. I didn't know what he would want to say to a young girl unless she was in trouble.

"You know how sometimes you see things differently?" he asked me "Things get dark while some people glow different colors, you smell and hear things from far away?" he said to me. I slowly nodded. Papa must have told him about this.

There were times when the color part of my eyes became nothing but a small circle and everything turned black except for some people. Mom and dad were always blue, and city guards were mostly red, I remember one time I got really mad at Fabio for a while and I saw him glow gold.

"That paper" he said pointing at the parchment I held to my chest "It will explain everything to you." When I asked him more questions about it all he said to me was everything will come to explain itself one day. I didn't understand why everyone was confusing me today...maybe it was just the blood loss. I hear people say that after they go to the doctor for a leech treatment, they get lightheaded.

I was ready to go home, but first, I wanted to talk to Federico and apologise for the night before. I made my way to the second floor where everyone slept and walked the long hallway full of paintings that usually led to his room. I knocked on the ivory white door but no answer came, I twisted the bright golden doorknob and poked my head inside the room calling for the owner. The room was lit by a couple of candles near the bed and the dresser, the light of the moon shone on the bed that remained unmade by Annetta meaning he woke up late again. I went closer to the bed and sat on it. Sprawled on the bed was his usual red vest and white tunic, not far from the bed, on the floor, there was a long white and red doublet and sparks of blood on it. Any other day I would be shocked by it, but who knew, maybe Federico was being a 'man' too today. I sat on the bed my legs crossed under my dress and began to look at the parchment given to me by messer Auditore. The writing on it seemed almost like a drawing, it was not something known to me, there were no roman letters I could I identify on them, just some broken scribbles.

"Can I help you miss?" I heard from the door. I looked up and saw the man who I'd been waiting for.

I stared at him for a minute, he was wet and shirtless. Even if the room was lit in the dim lights of the candles, but I could see his dark eyes staring at me behind his wet shaggy hair that stuck to his forehead, sparkling water dripping down to his well defined chest all the way down his tight trousers. I looked back up at him and saw a small smirk playing on his face.

"Father told me you were forced into a dress, but I almost didn't recognise you" he said closing the door behind him. I tried to remain composed by the sight of is half naked body in front of me, but found myself blushing staring down at his covers.

"I look ridiculous" I said. I grabbed the shirt that was next to me and threw it at him.

"Not at all, you look cute" he said with a laugh. I saw him letting the shirt fall to the floor.

"Not Funny" I snapped at him "I really don't see the point of wearing all this" I said with my back falling to the bed. I felt his steps getting closer to the bed, and then a shift in the bed told me he was sitting on it.

"It suppose to make you attractive" he pause "Most women look attractive anyway" I ignored his hidden insult

"Did you know? Men wore dresses back in the roman time" I said to him remembering one of the many passage of history my father made me read. "They wore skirts when they went into battle too, and now they wear trouser." I pouted

"And what are you trying to get at?" he said his voice soft and distant

"If boys wore dresses and that magically became trouser after a millennia, how long do I have to wait to be able to wear trouser without having people make fun of me and monks calling me a sinner?" I asked him. He hummed creating soft vibrations on the bed. I looked at him and saw him laying face down on the bed staring right at me with his eyes half closed.

"I don't know, maybe another millennia" he laughed at me "I don't think either of us will live to see the say" he said seriously. I whined at his seriousness and gave him a small flick on the head.

I never did apologise to him that night, he fell asleep after exchanging only a couple of words quietly. I put his cover on him and walked out of his room and went to meet my mother. We walked home together not waiting for my dad to come, we were probably going to prepare supper from him when we got to the inn. As soon as I came home however, I fell asleep with the dress still on my body and the white past on my face.

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><p>I woke up the next morning to an increasing amount of noise in the room. Mama and papa where packing up pots and pans trying to be careful not to make a loud noise. I slowly got up rubbing by eyes and watched them move around. There were time when I could watch them move all day, I loved my parents more than anything in the world, and their movement were always so graceful and rhythmic. Like a slow dance that was only mastered by them. Mother knew how to use a swords, she was also a knife thrower in our small circus. Father on the other hand lifted heavy things, he probably though mother swordplay so she could defend herself against thieves.<p>

"What going on?" I asked looking at the two trying to arrange out luggage.

"Depeche toi cheri, range tes affaires." Father said to me. I looked out the window and saw only small rays of light coming in. The sun wasn't yet up creating dark hews of gold up in the sky. As I got off the bed, I feel a strong force holding my chest, I looked down to see that Claudia's bodice was still on me, I growled a little and went to collect some clothes I could wear for the day. I changed into more comfortable clothing leaving the dress on a chair near the dresser.

"Mama! Papa! Que passa!" I asked a little louder from behind the .

"We're leaving Firenze honey" said mama.

"What?" I asked surprised by the sudden decision "Where we going?" I asked.

"We're going on the road again, isn't it great?" said mother almost in a worried matter.

"But papa said we we're not leaving yesterday". I stood there in shock for a couple of minutes, I didn't want to leave this place, I didn't even like leaving for carnevale anymore. Being on the road was tiresome.

"Umm, it was my idea _bonita (_sweetheart_)_"

"Are we ever going to come back?" I asked.

"I don't know love" said mother to me one last time before going back to her packing.

It was probably childish on me to believe we were staying here for good, after meeting the Auditore's I almost believe that we were going to start life anew here. I don't remember much of my time in the lower west side of France, but I knew that my time in Firenze would never be forgotten. Tears started to fall down my face as I began folding my clothes, my dreams of getting married in a one town and staying there my entire life where shattered. I would never be able to have children that grew up in one place, I would never be able to walk by a street corner or a tree telling my kids that's where I first kissed their father, I would never be able to look at them in the eye and tell them that is the place where they were born. That dream was just a fantasy.

After I was done packing the little clothes I owned, I realised that I had borrowed a lot of clothes from Petruccio and Ezio during my sleepovers with Claudia, I also had the dress and jewellery I wore yesterday. I started folding those clothes aside fighting the strong tears that threaten to fall once more and wrapped them in a buddle. During my stay here, I had made friends, learned a new language and worst of all I had fallen in love. The tears fell once more, but out of rage this time. I didn't want to leave, I wanted to stay, but I couldn't exactly voice out my concern to them. I looked over my shoulder to see my parents arguing in hushed tones, I started to listen in hoping to get any information out of them but that tongue wasn't familiar to me. It was fast and contained lots of R's and H's, it almost felt as though they were slurring. I saw them turn their head and kneel down to wrap some things still in heat of the arguments.

"Mama, papa, I'll be back, I'm just going to give the Auditore's back their stuff" I said to them using the moment their attentions was divided between arguing and packing to sneak out of the room. Their heads move back so fast that I almost read the wind whistle.

"NO!" I heard them say.

I knew that once they caught me they wouldn't let me go, it's a lesson I've learned the hard way after many years of this. With the buddle of clothing wrapped around my shoulders, I snuck into the neighbour's room. They were sleeping in a rather intimate matter with their clothes all over the floor and their bodies wrapped around one another. I giggled and forced myself to move and head to the roof of the inn.

The first thing I realised when I set foot on the roof, was the group of men in red and gray clothing that had swords in their hips and a bow and arrow around their hands walking on the roofs. On the ground there were also a growing number of guards with more and more weapons in their hands patrolling the streets. The sun has already come out and people were starting to move out of their home to head to the markets. Across from the inn's roof, was a small group of thieves gambling on an unfinished room in a building. I walked up to them putting on the meaning face I owned.

"Hey what's going on?" I yelled out to them

"Oh you know… The usual!" yelled out one of them.

"What's the usual?" I said to them taking out a piece of copper out of my pocket letting it gleam in the morning sun. As soon as the shine caught their eye their mouth became loose.

"They're about to execute people at the Piazza in a half an hour" said one of them

"Yea I heard they're some pretty important people" said another one. I threw the copper over to them and used some of the crates near the building to make my way down to the streets before an archer saw me and mistook me for a thief.

Before I reached the Auditore's house I decided to take the chance to explore the market place of Firenze. I've traveled through many cities and countries, and markets were always full of people in the morning, most of them servants who wanted to get the freshest ingredients for their respective houses. Italian market places however, were all rather clean. Venice's was my favourite, and Firenze came close second. The thought of leaving made me tear up again, I knew that it wasn't the end of the world, that I could always come back and visit them again, but the future was unpredictable and I didn't want things to change.

The big clock on the Piazza indicated it was now 11 in the morning and the crowd started gathering near the platform where the execution was being held. Up on the platform there were 3 ropes knotted suspended from the top of the stage. It caught me as a surprise because they rarely executed more than 2 people when they weren't dealing with pirates. What was even stranger was that one of the knots was a lot lower than the other 2, like it was made for a child or a midget of some kind. I was really hopping for these people to be pirates, I've only heard about how they conquered the sea's while giving the war ships a run for their lives. Too bad it would be the only time I saw them. I looked around the crowd saw it was mainly composed of men, young men mostly and a couple of butchers and vendors that came by to watch the rare event. There were also a couple of women passing by with their fruit baskets and groceries. I was probably the only child around, because parents hated having their kids witness death, I stood at the front because of my cursed height. I decided to look back for a bit and survey the crowd, at the back there was the head of a white hood that looked really heavy, the person wearing that must have been really hot under cause I was already sweating under the vest I wore.

The prisoners were finally came out of the palazzo with their hands tied behind their backs and black cloaks over their heads. Very roughly they were lead to the platform where their life was about to be taken. There were 3 people, two of which were tall and another that was significantly shorter and chubbier than the others, they were all very well dressed meaning they were not pirates. The shortest of the 3 took very small shaky steps towards the platform while the other too refused to struggle or show signs of weakness. The executioner came out holding a small knife. I don't think he was going to stab them to death when their knots were already prepared. I closed my eyes trying to hold back a laugh that was going to come out. From the side of the stage came Uberto Alberti, I saw him with messer Auditore a couple of times, he was a lawyer of some sorts, but I didn't like him very much, he always ignored me. Along with him came another fat man, but he was taller than Uberto, and wore a long black cape with a hood hiding most of his face and his red and grey clothing. The guards had started placing themselves around the stage. There were 2 huge men that wore big metallic armour covering their entire bodies holding axes that seemed too big and heavy for them, on either side of the stage. In the middle placed right in from of me stood two tall men, one was skinny wearing very little armour, while the other wore a skirt like bottom and a bigger chest plate then the skinny one, he also held a long spear with a mismatched blade.

The prisoners approached the knots and the dark cloaks over their heads were removed. I gasped out loud as I saw the faces of the people in front of me. The first man is the man whom I hoped to have as a father in law, he stood proud with his head held up and his shoulders straight with his eyes peering down to the crowd, his eyebrows were furrowed in anger and his mouth was brought to a thin angry line. Second was the young Petruccio, a child that was about 2 years older than me, but his innocence and ignorance to the world made him seem like a baby. The most pain this child had ever brought to anyone was asking for food when he was hungry. Looking up at him now, I could easily see his face was full of worry as his eyes scanned the crowd, he was afraid but refused to cry. I was almost afraid to look at the last man, he wore his favourite red vest again with the lack of a tunic, he must have put it on as soon as he heard the guards coming into his house, I peered up under my eye lashes to peek at him almost afraid of what I would see. I could catch his brows were furrowed too and his eyes were looking back at me wide and almost pleading. Tears started forming in my eyes at the shock, my ears were screaming completely blocking out the roar of the crowd. I would see the fat man's lips moving and making gestures towards Giovanni, I could see messer Auditore struggling from his binds as the yelled back at the fat man. I didn't know what was going on, but I knew one thing for a fact, the Auditore's were good people, none of them were able to commit the crimes they were being accused of. I was a lie.

"YOUR LYING!" A loud bark in the crowd brought me back to reality.

I was looking in between the two very different look guards that had both readied their weapons looking out into the people that were getting more agitated as the men's words became louder and angrier. In a moment of insanity, I ran between the 2 guards that were too busy to notice me and gently grabbed a small knife at the back of the one that wore less armour and ran up the stage towards to make my way towards Giovanni Auditore.

"What Going on!" I yelled at him

"No time! Save Petruccio!" he yelled at me. I saw the two guards making their way towards me. I ducked down between them and ran to Petruccio with his eyes even more worried than before. I got behind him and cut the bids holding his hands, I was about to tell him to get himself free…

"What are you doing? RUN!" I heard Federico's voice behind me.

"What are you waiting for! Get her!" I heard the hooded man say. I saw one of the skinny guards making his way towards me, I closed my eyes in hopes to disappear when I heard a sudden thud hit the stage. I looked down to see the guards dead with a small knife in his head. I look over to the crowd to thank my saviour, but I was greeted my chaos down under as the people all decided to run around as if just realising the guards had pointy objects. There were a couple of people that lay dead or bleeding, while other stepped on the dead to save their lives.

"Isobella! RUN!" I heard the man in the white hood say. I recognised his voice as being that of the missing Auditore brother.

"NO! watch out!" I yelled out realising a couple of guards making their way towards him. I was about to run to give him some help when my body refused to move as it was now lifted from the ground. I yelled as hard as I could trying to make my body reach the floor, I started spewing out lines of curses and swears I leaned over the year to make myself stronger, but it didn't do anything. I heard the two fat men say something, and then whipped my head to look at Petruccio.

He died.

The platform under their feet was gone, it all happened so fast. I could have sworn my world had stopped if it were not for the speed in which they had lost their lives. One second I'm yelling at the guard, the next I'm staring into Petruccio's dead eyes that kept their petrified state until the very end with a single tear rolling down his cheek. As suddenly as I had realised what had happened, I felt a sharp pain going down to my spine and the world went black.

Maybe I was dead too.

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><p><strong>Thats chapter 3 I have one more chapter typed up and the rest are on paper, I just wanted to get the story going. Please let me know what you think REVIEW! <strong>

**I would also like to let everyone know that I am french, and have been studying in french my entire life so my english doesnt make sense at time, if there was any awkward sentensing or working, let me know.**

**one more thing...The next two chapters are very grewsome in a sense, they're kinda dark, so if some of you would like me to give a summury on the events I will do so. **

**Once again Thank you for taking an interest in my story.**


	4. Chapter 4

**The fallowing chapter is not for the week minded. I'm not really a dark writer I like people to be happy when they read my stories. I honestly scared myself considering how easy it was to write it, I really want people to understand Isobella in the future, I don't want her to be running around fallowing Ezio without a clear goal. Also, I want to say thank you for reviewing it means allot to me and really helps me write, feel free to give me any suggestions for future chapter, pr there is anything you'll like me to include let me know. THANK YOU**

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><p><strong>Chapter 4<strong>

It all happened too fast, I didn't understand it.

"I will kill you I swear it" I yelled to the Bastard Uberto. My father trusted him with his life, and in return, he took it. He had hurt all the people I cared for in less than a day, my mother, my sister, my father, my brothers, and Isobella. I couldn't tell is she was dead or not, all I could see from behind the guards was blood sliding out from her black hair. I began to run towards the stage with my sword in hand when more men appeared. In a flash, they knocked my sword out of my hands and grabbed me by the arms.

"Kill him!" said the man with the black hood behind Uberto.

Suddenly a group of thieves came running into the chaos and knocked over the soldiers that were going to kill me. I turn towards the direction they ran in and saw the thief and courtesan from yesterday.

"You better run boy" he said to me. "And fast!" so I ran, ran like a child that just lost his mother in the crowd, like a scared puppy with his tail between his legs while my own flesh and blood hung there for the entire republic of Florence to see. Meanwhile some child whom I'd had known for a fraction of my life was going to die for trying to do what I couldn't.

I found a crate of hay big enough to harbour me under the roof I've been running on, I let my arms open and jumped down into it trying to shut out the chaos behind me. As the small stubbles of hay picked my skin, my mind started to wander. What happened, why was my father dead, he was just a banker? And my brothers, Federico could care less about the city, he didn't like to harbour responsibility, while Petruccio wouldn't even hurt a fly. He was a baby, what would he conspire against the city. I don't know how many hours have passed in that crate, but the screams in the piazza had long died down and merchants were making their last call on their items at a much lesser prince. The clonking of the guards armors had faded long ago and my presence in the crate was long forgotten by the passing civilians.

I pushed the hay aside and saw that the sun was on the other side of the tour near the cathedral and the crowds on the street was slowly getting thinner. I carefully made my way out of the crate and ran into the alley Annetta was suppose to wait for me at, I avoided all the routes with guards station by and traveled like a thief. Annetta was waiting, her back was crouched and her head was looking up into the sky. She turned to me as soon as she heard my footsteps.

"Thanks Goodness Ezio, you're alright!" she exclaimed looking at my body to see if I was seriously hurt.

"I tried to save them, I swear" I try to say, but the sound of my voice didn't sound right, it was high, pitched and hoarse all at once.

"Come I'll take you to your mother and sister" she said to me taking my hand.

"You go first, it dangerous for us to travel together." I said to her my voice slowly coming back to normal.

I fallowed her on the roof's avoiding archers and slipping through many dark alleys, I tried to pay no mind to the growing number of courtesans and thieves. The alleys started to look duller as the colors of Firenze disappeared little by little. Annetta stopped for a second looking at her surrounding before continuing on and getting into a large house. The house was bigger than our home back in the upper district, it had a beautiful roof garden and had red ribbons hanging from it adding to the grandeur of the home. After she slipped inside the house, I waited a minute before getting down the roof I was on and quietly slipping inside the house and gently closing the door behind me. The smell hit me before I turned around. There was a mix of different perfumes and sweat lingering in the home destroying me first impression of it.

"Ummm Annetta, I think we got the wrong house." I said looking around. She chuckled slightly before answering.

"No, no this is it" she said almost in a murmur.

My sight carried looking into the low bodice of a women draped in a red and gold dress ripped from all side, the woman turned towards me. As I shifted my gaze, a slightly younger girl then the first passed by me swaying her hips in an attractive manner, she gave me a slight wink before leaving the room and going into the next. I heard Annetta chuckle again, she grabbed by arms leading me down a long hallway where you could heard loud moan and giggles.

The sun had just set so figured the work day had just started for these women. Annetta knocked on a big wooden red door with Latin writing on the front, and pulled me inside before I could read stood inside a big bedroom, there were big chairs with pillows on them and the whole room seam to carry this romantic feel to it. The room smelled nice too, there wasn't a strong smell of perfume like up at the front door, but has a light rosy smell. Inside there was a woman wearing a big red gown with a tight corset forcing her breast to pop out, she had her black hair braided and over her shoulder while the rest was covered by a light red shawl. In front of her were two figures with their backs facing us, both of them in a silent grieving hold. The woman in red got up and walked towards me with her head held high.

"It's a pleasure to make you acquaintance messer Ezio, Annetta speaks quite highly of you, I can see why." She said looking at me from top to bottom.

"I appreciate the kind words, Madonna-" I started humbly before she cut me off.

"Di prego, call me Paola" she said to me holding her hand up

"I want to thank you for offering your home to my Family, Paola"

"It was the least I could do, after what has happened." She already knew.

"Ezio!" I heard coming from one of the figures. It stood up to face me, as it made it's way towards me, I recognized the figure as Isobella's mother. "Where is she!, where's my baby?" said Madonna Marino. My face began to heat up suddenly, my body was ready to cry, but my eyes would not comply.

"There was so much going on, I didn't see her until it was too late." I said my voice in a small whisper. Madonna Marino fell to her knees, messer Marino came from behind Paola and sat next to his wife.

"What did your girls say, Paola?" he said not looking at me

"They didn't kill her yet, they took her in for….questioning." the way she said the last words brought a shill up my spine.

"Ezio, you must be tired, get some rest." He said to me.

"No! I cannot stay!" I almost yelled

"Where will you go?" asked Paola

"To kill Uberto Alberti!" I said, the words came out naturally as if it was the only logical thing to do.

"I understand your desire for vengeance" said Paola in her soft voice. "But the man is powerful, and you are not a killer" she told me

"Spare me the lecture, por favaore!" I said disregarding her words.

"You not ready yet Ezio, there is still much to do, listen to Paola." Said Messer Marino

"I can make you into one" finished Paola

"How are you going to teach me how to kill?"

"I'm not, I'm going to teach you how to survive" finished the woman.

"Learn from her son, her lesson is most important to complete your task" said messer Marino. I looked over to Paola once more.

"Uberto knows your coming for him, so he went into hiding in his home and has all the possible exits heavily guarded. We'll start your straining tomorrow, and I'm just going to hope that you learn fast."

"Come rest Ezio" Said Annetta walking me out of the room.

"How are mother and sister" I said in a daze

"They are fine, sleeping. I'll get a room ready for you as well." She said walking away.

I walked away from the busy hallway where Paola's room stood, unable to believe what I had just heard. They acted as if this was part of a daily ritual, they didn't want to stop me from committing a crime punishable in this lifetime and the next. My mind was swam with more questions, how did they know this was going to happen, why was everyone but Madonna Marino so calm about it, what was Isobella doing there in the first place. I didn't understand it. I didn't want to think about it. I walked over to the stairs leading to the second floor and sat there paying to mind to my surrounding.

Claudia and mother were just as lost as I was, but I didn't have the courage to face them after what I let happen. How would I tell them that I ran away like a child after they killed my father. I fell someone sit next to me, I looked over and saw the young woman that had winked at me earlier.

"Why so glum, bello?" she asked in a soft throaty voice, as she put a hand on my leg.

"Bella," I whispered getting closer to her ear "I've had a horrible day, could you make me forget?" she giggled as she got closer, she put her chin on my shoulder as her arm snaked around my waist.

"And what would you like me to do, bello" she said with a gleam in her eyes, her chest looking up at me.

"Anything you'd like." I was probably drunk over the perfume in the house, but I didn't care. I let the woman lead me into a dark room and let her undress me. I didn't care, I needed to get my mind off whatever happened today, I needed a distraction and she was willing to provide it.

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><p>I felt a shock go over my entire body as water filled my lungs. My body erupted into a coughing fit as I tried to regain my breath. I tried to take a deep breath, but another wave of water hit me again, causing it to go up my nose, mouth and had me go into another coughing fit.<p>

"Enough, I think she's waking up" I heard a gruff voice say.

I could feel the cold water rolling down my skin, my hair and clothes were completely damped by the water that's been thrown on me. I tried wiping the water going down my face. I felt a throbbing pain down the back of my neck hitting like a hammer on wood, my arms felt as though they weighed a ton. My entire body hurt me like I had been run over by a horse. I tried moving my hands to wipe the water off my face, but something stopped me, I tried with the other hand but it gave the same result. I started coughing again. My eyes shot open letting some water get into them, I squinted and tried to look at my surroundings threw my lashes. I was in a very poorly lit room with two huge shadows hovering over me with red eyes. The excess water in my eyes dripped down my cheeks allowing me to see clearer, and then everything went black apart from the two shadows that now glowed a bright red. My body came to the realisation that it was being restricted. I was laying on a hard plank that felt like wood, my arms were tied by iron manacles that kept them from moving while my legs were tied together firmly planted on the ground. My vision came back to normal as the sudden danger had passed momentarily, the dimly lit room was a prison cell, there were long metallic bars looking back at me, the walls were a hard grey tainted with blood, the floor under me was covered by a bed of straws with traces of blood. There were no windows in this prison, only a couple of torches that were outside the cell.

"Where am I?" I tried to say, but the words came out in a short breath that barely made any sense.

"Your finally awake" said the voice again "we were beginning to think you died."

"It would have been a shame if you did" said another voice, it carried a certain pitch compare to the other, but there was no denying that it belonged to a man.

I looked at their faces trying to figure out if I had seen them before. They were strangers. One of them had long black hair that came down to his shoulders he kept untied, his face was long and skinny, his eyes were a deep black that made him almost inhuman. The other, had his hair tied back, his face was rounder and his eyes were just as black, and held this playful dark twinkle, you could easily tell he was older than the first. The guy with the rounder face was at my left, I saw his hand move forward to come in contact with my face slowly wiping the water off my cheeks.

"Aww, you made her eyes all red son" he said, he was the one with the gruff voice.

"It was your idea!" said the other

"Now, now, where are my manners? Let me introduce myself, my name is Juan Borgia, and this," he said pointing at the other man, "Is my nephew, Giovanni."

Their lack of armour told me they were not guards watching me, but their sudden interest scared me.

"What's your name?" asked the one called Giovanni. I tried to speak again, but no words came

"She's been out for two days, give the poor girl some water!" said Juan. Giovanni brought a wooden cup to my lips and tilted it slightly to give me the water. The feeling of the water going down my throat is indescribable, it felt like a seeing a beautiful rainbow after a violent storm. A poor choice of words but, it's the only thing I can think of.

"Better?" asked Giovanni asked again. All I could give was a slow nod. Suddenly the events of that day came floating into my head; the hooded man, Uberto's betrayal, the execution, Petruccio's lifeless eyes. My heart began racing uncontrollably, as my vision started to blur again, I wanted to cry, I needed to cry, but my eyes didn't cooperate, they remained dry. I was sure that after I blacked out, I had died. I was hoping I would have so that I would be with Federico. The thought of not being able to hear his voice again made my heart bleed, he would never fall in love now like he told me he might one day. The men untied me after I stayed silent with frightened eyes, my body crumbled to the ground as my knees made their way up towards my head. Finally the tears started pouring uncontrollably, like a child who had lost everything. The thought of children made me think of my parents, they were probably worried sick by now, I wonder is Ezio found them and told them what happened. Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't, he just saw his family murdered in from of him.

The men left me after a while, they probably got bored of my crying and returned to whatever they were doing before I was brought in here. Food fallowed slowly after, the young girl serving the food looked at me with sad eyes, I heard her say something about her masters thinking I was too skinny and I needed more meat on my bones. I was healthy for a peasant child I didn't know why I needed to be fatter, but I didn't question it afraid it would cut my food supply. Slowly, I was getting over the shock of the Auditore's death and my mind started to think about my own family, I needed to stay alive until papa found me or he would never forgive himself. Before the young lady left with the empty plates, she said something about her masters being back soon and whispered words of strength to me.

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><p>WARNING: CHILD ABUSE ahead!<p>

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><p>I don't know how many days I was in the prison cells, everyday, I would get food and water given to me by different servants. Some were nice and kept quiet, while others, especially those who were older, kept complaining about how I didn't need to be feed or how lucky I was their masters were keeping me alive. I was hard to tell day from night, the prison had no windows or any holes to tell what time of the day it was.<p>

The inside of my cell was gruesome, not only was it small, but everything was brought closer together. On one side of the cell, there was the plank I was attached to when I first woke up, from time to time, I would squat behind the plank and take care of my stomach. On the other side of the plank there was a bed of straws I slept on, it was smelly and full of dark dried blood and the fact that my poop was behind the plank didn't help the smell of the place. Outside the cell, there was a row of weapons: swords, daggers, hammers, and things that looked like they were used for torture.

I opened my eyes after what felt like an eternity, I could hear the sound of metal hitting pavement making everything bounce off the walls. I sat up and looked around for something I could use to hit whatever was coming, usually the maids that brought me food barely made any noise. The heavy steps told me it was a guard that would be coming towards those doors. I waited until I saw a short man with a light metal armour around his chest, he wore matching bracers and greaves, his attire was simple but should could tell he was of high rank. He carried a big tray of food with him, I scooted closer to the corner trying to made myself invincible, but he didn't bother saying much as he balance the tray in one hand and opened the door with the other. As he closed the door behind him, he placed the tray on the ground and sat down next to it.

"Come and eat dear." He said gesturing to the tray.

I didn't move.

"I will not hurt you" he said as he pushed the tray forward. "how do you feel?" he asked me taking off his helmet and place it next to him.

"I'm not hungry" I blurted out. I expected him to be angry or yell at me but he didn't.

"Look child," he said scratching his salt and pepper beard "Your little friend just killed Uberto, and that means the masters will come here and interrogate you, so please eat, you need strength"

"My friend?" I asked slowly.

"Si, Ezio Auditore, you know him non?" he said quietly

"Si, but Ezio is not a killer, are you sure you're not mistaking?"

"After he killed Uberto, he yelled letting the entire world know that the Auditore's weren't dead and that he Ezio was still alive. I'm sure child" he said to me with a pleading look.

I sat down next to the tray of fruits and bread. He even brought me apple juice. I quietly ate the bread and cheese in my hands, something at the back of my mind was telling me that I really needed to savour this meal more than anything. Maybe it was the look in this man's eyes. I looked up at him under my lashes. He had short dark hair contrasting his aging beard, his eyes were soft and had small wrinkle lines forming around them, there was a red line on top of his eyebrows where the helmet was holding his head and his eyes were a piercing honey brown.

"I have a daughter about your age" he said to me "I would hate for her to meet the man I work for" he finished.

"I have a father that's just a little older than you" I said after relaxing a bit next to him "He's probably worried sick right now" I said taking an apple and biting into it.

"I wish I could get you out"

"Then please! Get me out!" I pleaded to him. He looked at the ground and shook his head.

" Then my daughter would be in here" he said softly. "No matter what, please stay strong" he said to me getting up and making his way towards the door.

"Wait! How long have I been in here?" I asked him hoping for an answer

"Its been a little over 2 weeks now my dear" he said to me before he left.

I didn't know if I should be happy I survived for so long in this dark prison cell. My body was aching, my head was pounding and my eyes burned. The fact that I had not moved around freely for the past 2 weeks made me feel weak and the greasy meat they were feeding me every day gave me gas. I could tell it was pork, mother always told me not to eat swine because it was dirty and bad for you, I felt bloated. The thought of swine made me think about those two fat men that were there the day of the Auditore murder, the guard just told me that Ezio killed Uberto, and that meant he was still alive.

I laughed, for the first time in two weeks, I laughed like I was possessed, I was happy, I could feel the tears coming down my face. If he was alive, that also meant Maria and Claudia were too, and if Maria was alive, I didn't have to worry about mama being too sad because they would be there to console each other. Not to mention that he would have probably told my dad what happened and they were probably looking for me, if it has been two weeks my papa would find me soon. I lay down on the prickling straws under me and looked up at the dark ceiling and let the tears fall down my face. For a second I thought I saw some light coming into the cell, but my heavy eyes closed and fell asleep.

I woke up in an unfamiliar, my head was hurting even more than before now and my wrists were feeling raw and bloody. I tried to clear my vision and get a good look around this new place, but the light was piercing my eyes making them burn even more. I felt every feeling in my body intensify; my pounding head, my burning eyes, my sore muscles, every part of my was on fire. I opened my eyes in a flash and waited for them to get used to the light. As little time passed, I realised I was outside the cell but still in the musky dungeon as I decided to call it. My arms were chained above my head and my feet were barely touching the floor. I could feel my wrists scraping against the side of the manacles. When did I get here? What happened?

I heard the door of the cell behind me open and close, and light footsteps going around the prison. I tried to stay still as a unexpected shiver came up my back. Suddenly I saw 3 figures appears to my right side, they started to move around me like an animal until they came face to face with me. Two of them were the ones I first saw when I woke up, the other however, was a tall fat man with greying hair and mouth brought to a tight pucker watching me with his dull lifeless eyes.

"What do we have here" said the fat man

"It is the child that tried to stop the execution" said the younger man

"I can see that Giovanni, it was a rhetorical question" he said no bothering to look at the young man "So what are the assassin's have you do?" he asked me.

"Who?" I felt a sharp pain come in contact with my face

"Do not play dumb with me child, I will not hold back." I tried to struggle in my chains and give him a good kick, but I just ended up hurting my wrist even more.

"Stop struggling, you can't escape! So tell me child for it will not a simple slap next time. What are the assassins having you do?" I chose to stay quiet this time. I saw the man's brow furrow.

"Let's try a simpler question brother" said the one I remember as Juan "Do your people teach you things?" I lifted my brow and nodded "In what?" he asked again.

"Juggling"

"Honestly juggling? What kind of training is that for an assassin?" said the youngest one.

"I don't know who those assassin's you talk of are, I'm a circus performer" I said to them.

"And we're cardinals at the Vatican but that doesn't make up for the fact that I'm going to get answers out of you my any means necessary."

I tried to struggle against the manacles again, I hated these people, I just wanted to jump on one of them and claw them to death. The fat man laughed at my struggle, I could feel the iron chains scratching my wrists making them bleed. He had a devious smile on his face, that smile, I saw it once before, but I couldn't remember where. He took my face in his hands and made me look at him.

"Where are your people hiding?" he said sourly. I don't understand why they kept saying people, or assassins, couldn't they just ask me where my parents were?

"I'd rather swim with sharks than tell you" I said to him. I don't know what came over me, I didn't care enough for myself to let them hurt my parents. The back of his hand collided with my face once again, this time, his rings scrapped my mouth making me bleed and left my ears rigging.

"You will talk do you understand me!" he yelled this time. Then I did something I knew I would regret. I gathered as much saliva in my mouth as possible and spat at him strait in the eyes.

He didn't slap me this time. I could feel the air in my lungs leave as his fist collided with my stomach, I tried breathing in again, but he pushed me again.

"How dare you! You insolent girl!" and again, and again. I could feel my insides ripping because of the pain, while my dangling body tried to come to itself to let the pain die. The hitting stopped all too suddenly, the man in front of me huffed like he had just finished a long race.

"Come father" said the gruff voice "We'll take care of the questioning"

I coughed this time, waiting for the pain to stop, I had to force myself to swallow the blood afraid that I would be hit again. The younger man took his father to a chair in front of me and let him sit, while Juan went behind me to grab something.

I was able to catch my breath for a second before I felt a hissing pain go down my back, I could heard my white tunic being ripped with something hard and pointy that was scratching my skin. I kept my teeth together to fight the screams coming at my mouth.

"Look! Uncle! She has dimples!" said the young man in front of me.

"Really! Let me see." Said Juan as he came in front of me with a knife in one hands and a whip in the other "Smile!" he ordered.

I puffed my cheeks making sure I didn't move my face. In saw Giovanni grab the whip

"I'll show you"

An electrifying pain hit my spine as the whip collided with my bear skin. I grid my teeth and closed my eyes in hopes to stop the screams coming at my throat, I could feel invisible ants crawling all over my body biting. I heard some clapping in front of me. I opened my eyes to see Juan jumping up and down life a child his eyes shining.

"Wow! Wow! Again! Again!" he said with his voice full of enthusiasm.

Then the pain came again, harder this time, the ants crawling on my skin started to bite harder than before. I shut my eyes hoping that this was a dream that it wasn't real, that I would wake up in a couple minutes and realise that I was asleep in my bed wearing Claudia's annoying dress and that it was giving me nightmares. The third hit was even worse than the first two, it felt as though my entire body was ripping in half. I shut my eyes to wake myself up from this nightmare. I opened my eyes to blink away the tears and shut my mouth to stop the metallic salty water from passing my throat. The look on Juan Borgia as I struggled to regain my posture was not nice to look at. His usual happy eyes now went dark and his mouth was brought to a scowl similar to that of the fat man sitting on the other side of the room.

"Make her scream!" he said in a dark voice

The sheer force behind the whip as it touched my skin probably made me bleed after a while, I kept hoping, praying that the pain would lessen as they continued but the pain came back stronger each time. I could feel tears running down my face, but my throat refused to made any sound. No yelling, no crying, no cursing, just small little yelps each time the whip came into contact with my back.

"Why don't you scream!" he yelled. I didn't look at him, I kept my head on the ground letting the blood coming from my mouth dripping to the floor.

"Let's make a deal kid. I promise we'll stop hurting you if you tell us where you friends are hiding." He said again, this time softer than before. I groaned this time trying to come up with the right thing to say. But my mouth wouldn't comply.

"Vaffanculo"

"Aww, do I have to?" said Giovanni behind me "Uncle, What are we suppose to do with a child?" he whined.

"I almost forgot"

"You can't be serious, she's a so small, no breast, no hips. How old are you?" he said to me. I kept my eyes closed and tried to forget where I was, to wake up from this horrible dream.

"The younger ones are best son" his footsteps drew closer "The way they scream, the way they beg, they are so tight, a shame she isn't younger" said Juan Borgia in a voice that wasn't even human anymore.

My eyes went wide in horror, did I just hear that! They wouldn't I'm just a child, that's just bad. That gruff voice spoke again, I was really starting to hate it.

"I can show you how son. Rodrigo?." I heard a laugh coming from the other side of the room.

"I want answers you two, I don't care how you get them, but get them" he got up and made his way towards the door. I gasped. I wasn't sure at the amount of trouble I was in, but when I saw the man's figure I realised who it was. I knew he looked familiar when I first looked at him, but that pork belly, it was the man in the black hood standing next Uberto the day of the Auditore's execution.

"It was you!" my voice came out wrong, it was raspy and strained. "The blackhood, I was you!"

"How long does it take to figure out something so simple?"

"Maybe hitting her more will help her find more answers?" said the youngest Borgia.

"Rodrigo Borgia, I will come back to haunt you" I said my voice just as faint. I saw Giovanni go behind me to get something else, my eyes followed him in hope to see what he was looking for, suddenly, I felt more fabric tear and a brisk wind pasted through my midsection, I looked down to my horror the man crouching under me. I tried to kick him but my body refused to move, I tried squirming against the manacles that held me captive but it just made me bleed more. I couldn't do anything as his nephew held my legs, I couldn't do anything as his hands went up my leg, I couldn't do anything as his lips touched my skin. Tears didn't even come as he touched the most fragile part on my body. His gruff voice laughed again.

"Untouched my all" he said as he touched me again. "This is going to be so FUN!"

All I could do before my visions went black from the pain that evaded my lower body was scream with all the air present in my lungs.

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><p><strong>I just finished writing the next chapter, and its really really long, 20+ pages HAND WRITTEN. Also it doesn't have Ezio but its truly essential to the plot. <strong>

**I guess this chapter was pretty lengthy too, should i break up the fallowing one into two chapts let me know!**

**Thats all for today folks, Later Days! **


	5. Chapter 5

**This chapter was getting really really long so I thought it would be better to cut it in half. Also, I thought it would better to end every chapter with a cliffhanger, cause I'm crazy like that.**

**I would like to say thank you! to those who reviewed my story, it means a lot to me since its my fist fic. **

**To the anonumous reviewer, I don't know how you felt about the last chapter, I really didnt like writting it to be honnest. **

**LostforWords: I hope you can come back and see for yourself if she becomes an assassin, my plans are set for her. Also, I did change history a bit, in my fic, Rodrigo has 4 sons, I know that Giovanni/Juan are the same person, just not in this piece of fiction, I thought it would be more appropriate for the plot I'm trying to create. **

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><p><strong>Chapter 5<strong>

Everything was dark, I couldn't feel anything except for the sharp pain on my back. I felt as though all of my blood was going to my feet at full speed, they felt big and heavy.

"Rise and shine little one, it's time for round two!" I heard a voice say. I tried to open my eyes to look at my surroundings but I couldn't move. My breathing was getting slower and slower, I tried to feel my heartbeat but it wasn't there. I felt someone slap my cheek as if to wake me up, the hand was burning hot but I couldn't flinch away. The hand stayed on my cheek still burning my skin.

"Uncle, she's cold" I heard

"Is she dead" another voice said

"I don't know, she's not breathing"

I felt another hand come in contact with my skin, still as hot as the first. "Cazzo! Cut her down!" there were crashes on the ground. "Michealo! Michealo! Come down here!" there was a dead silence for a while and then the sound of footsteps.

My body fell to the ground with a hard thud, I could feel my wounds opening but I still couldn't voice out my discomfort.

"She's dead, throw in the Arno!"

"Make sure she drifts out of the city!" I heard the other voice say.

There were two sets of footsteps going into the distance.

"Dio mio…what have they done to you child" I suddenly felt a pair of burning fingers on my neck then heard a gasp. "Grazie a Dio" said the voice.

A small warmth enveloped me for a second before my mind went black, without a feeling, without a sound.

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><p>I heard the sound of water before anything else, I was on warm ground, it was so peaceful, it smelled like salt and dirt. Fresh salt and dirt, something my nose had forgotten the pass couple of weeks. I was happy I was out of there, maybe if I died, maybe if I was dead, someone would find me and tell my mom and dad and I would have a proper burial.<p>

"No! Isobella Farid Marino! Wake up!" I heard a voice say. I was a familiar voice, not one that I hated either.

"Am I dead" I wanted to voice out

"No Tesora! You're not dead, you can't die" The voice seems to have heard me anyway.

"Why not…?"

"Because you can't die yet, it's not your time yet. You haven't been able to live yet" hurried the voice.

"But mama said, when kids die, they go to heaven, so I'll be ok"

"I won't let you die because of me! Now get up!"

"No"

"Isobella please" I knew the owner of that voice now, I was sure of it

"Federico?"

"Si, tesora, now please, wake up" he pleaded

"Momento, you're dead?" I stated trying to understand what's going on

"And you're not"

"Then why am I talking to you? If you're dead and I'm not"

"Because it's my last wish, to help you"

"Porque?"

"Because your important" he said softly "To him, he needs you to survive and finish his task. Your mother and father are waiting for you still, so please wake up"

I could feel warm water coming out of my eyes, the sun was now shining against my face, the ground suddenly started to turn cold. I should feel my body slowly starting to create Goosebumps.

"Can you feel that? You're still alive"

"Federico" I tried to say aloud, my voice was hard and dry, barely creating any sound.

"Try moving your hands" and I did. Something so simple had turned into an almost impossible task, my body felt hard and my muscles were on fire. The life was slowly coming back to my fingers, I could feel the blood rushing through them all the way up to my arms.

"Now try your toes" the pain there was worse this time, I felt the pain inside my legs, and it wasn't just the muscle either, but deep ,deep, inside my bones. It felt like my blood was rushing fast like furious water heading to a water fall and it hurt, a LOT. I couldn't help but give out a small audible cry.

"It's okay cara, you're almost there" he reassured me " This is going to be a little harder…try turning your body to the side" I got an image in my head of a figure swinging their arm to the side to move and so I decided to try it. But my body wasn't there, it felt like a void, like I was but arms and legs.

I wiggled my fingers once more and brought my hand up, I took my hand and started to push it on the other side. And that's when all hell broke loose. I could feel sticky blood on my back, my bones felt broken, my muscles felt as though they were being ripped apart by a wild animal! I gave out a loud cry and fell back down.

"Come on! I know you can do it! Try again" I heard his soft voice say.

"It hurts" I cried to him with more hot tears streaming down my temples.

"Cara" I yelled out, giving a loud grunt! I was honestly trying my best, I wanted to move, to get up and have my mama hold me, but it was just too hard. "Come one try a little harder" I can't I can't I can't, why couldn't he understand that I couldn't. "More people you care about will hurt if you don't get up cara" said Federico's voice.

"It hurts damn. Why can't you see that!"

"It will be over soon, trust me"

I threw my arm to the side one last time and felt something cold. I used the side of ground to pull myself to the side. I could feel hot waves of shock spreading down my back, my voice was slowly coming back with all the screaming it's been doing. There were hot tears running down my face, my nose was running, I could feel saliva cascading down my mouth and blood creeping from my dried cracked lips. Never had I felt anything like that before.

I suddenly heard a loud thud from somewhere near me, I tried to open my eyes but bright rays of sun evaded my sight making me eyes burn. All I could see was a golden cape flying by my side a soft mumble and something warm covering me.

"I'm sorry Federico, I can't stay up" I said to him in my mind

"It's okay tesora, you did great" he said, his voice sounding very distant

"Mi dispiache" I said aloud one more time before falling sleep again not knowing if I could wake up.

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><p>Everything was dark, there was no sound, no feeling, I couldn't see anything, touch anything, feeling anything or even taste anything , not even my own spit. It was as if I was floating into nothingness . I couldn't tell if time was passing or not, I didn't know if everything was standing still or not. You know the feeling you get when you're really tired, you close your eyes and everything goes black for a half an hour and you wake up 8 hours later feeling like crap? That's how it felt.<p>

The first thing I heard was the soft snapping of a candle next to my left ear, then the deep heavy breaths of something on my right. My eyes sprang open suddenly and I found myself staring back at a wooden ceiling. I was in a dimly lit room that smelled of apples and garlic. I tried getting up to familiarise myself to my surroundings but I felt this aching pain go through my back, unconsciously, I fell back down with a loud cry on the soft bed I was on.

"Isobella? Go back to sleep bonita" I heard a soft feminine voice say.

"Mama?"

"Si bonita?" I heard her say, I could tell from her voice she was probably asleep.

"My back hurts"

Suddenly I felt my bed shift and a pair of hand on either one of my shoulders "My baby! My child! Can you hear me? Can you talk?" she said turning my head from side to side. I could feel the bones on my back cracking and a sharp pain hitting me in the side of the neck making me tear up.

"Mama that hurts" I said sniffing back my tears.

"You're alive"

"...Si?"

She gave out a loud sigh "I'm sorry bonita, are you hungry?"

As if my stomach realised it was empty when mama mentioned food, it gave out a loud growl that could compare to a lion's roar. I nodded my head and opened my eyes wide staring at mama. Mama slowly got off the bed and made her way to the door, I took this time to look around the room I was in.

It was big, with lots of windows and curtains, there was a single lit candle on my side of the room illuminating a small portion of the big room.

"Annetta! Can you bring some food, Isobella is up!" I heard mother say from the other side of the door.

"Where are we mama?" I tried calling out to her but my voice came out in a small whisper

"We're at Paola's home, Annetta' sister" she said walking back inside the room and closing the door gently behind her. She silently started to make her way back to my bedside and gently pulled the covers off my body. Carefully, she put one arm under my knees and the other under my armpits and slowly brought me to a sitting position. She placed a couple of pillows behind my back. I could tell mama was being really careful, she usually did things so fast that I missed them happening, but it still hurt a lot to the point where I grinded my teeth to cope with the pain.

"Here" she said giving me a glass of cold water. I made sure to finish the entire cup. "How does that feel?"

I finished the remaining water in the cup and gave out a small cough "I'm okay mama" I reassured her.

Minutes later Annetta came in carrying a huge tray of fruits and bread, she had a huge smile on her make- up free face giving her the allure that she was much younger than she was.

"Tesora, glad to see you're up" she made her way to the foot of the big bed and passed the tray to mama while she sat on the leg of the bed. I gave her a small nod and started eating the food, but as I stretched out my hand there was something painful that pulled it back.

I looked down at myself and saw that my right hand was wrapped in a large bundle of bandages with sticks poking out of the sides, there was a long piece of cloth that went around my neck and back down to my arm. My torso was also wrapped in many bandages as well. So were my legs! What happened to me? Did I fall from somewhere?

"Mama? Que passa?" I said quietly pointing at my hand. She gave Annetta a worried look and looked back at me.

" It's broken bonita, don't worry it will be better soon"

"Do you know who did this?" said Annetta, I looked at her for a bit trying to find an answer but, her eyes, they reminded me of Petruccio's . I blinked a couple of times trying to shake away the image, but it still remained.

"Mama, Messer Auditore…and Federico….Petruccio, they… mama why" I started tearing again, my tears falling quietly. I started to shake my head when blinking didn't help me forget, I tried harder until I felt someone hold me to their chest.

"Stop sweetie, it's okay, I'm here don't worry no one can hurt you" said mama

"They killed them, why ma'? They we're good people!"

"I know, it's the people that hurt them that are bad" she said stoking my hair. I started to quiet down a little, started to sniff back my tears. "Who…broke your arm?" she said quietly.

I readied myself for an answer "I don't know?" I said quietly

She pulled away and grabbed me by the shoulders "Who hurt you?" she said looking into my eyes.

"I really don't know, something hit me and everything when black, then I woke up here" her brow furrowed and her mouth was brought to a tin line "I'm sorry, mama I didn't mean to run away, please don't be mad! I'm sorry I hurt myself"

"No!" she said and pulled me closer, "you didn't do it on purpose I'm sure" she said. I could feel the wetness on my hair from something. I looked up and saw glistening streaks' on mother's cheeks.

"So, you really don't remember what happened after that?" asked Annetta after a moment of silence.

I looked over at her and shook my head. "I remember something gold, like a cape and then I woke up here." She gave me a worried look and looked back up at mama.

"Must have been volpe when he found her near the pier"

"Mama… where's papa?" I said suddenly realising he'd been missing. "And Ezio? Is he okay? He was there too?" I said pushing myself away from her.

"Ezio and his family went to Tuscany a while ago, they're fine" she said with a smile.

"And papa? Is he okay? Messer Auditore was his friend, non?"

"He's fine. He went out with a couple of friend, he'll be back in the morning" she told me before she started to cut fruits and feeding me.

The rest of the night went quietly, I finished my food with mama and Annetta each taking turns to feed me while the other asked a question every now and then. At first I found it weird that they asked me what I remembered, but then I realised it that it was a little weird, it was like I was sleeping for days. Who knows, maybe I got hit so hard that the guards thought I was dead and threw me at the pier, that's probably why I got hurt. After I finished the tray of food, I was feed some really disgusting oil and some garlic making my throat hurt, they said it would help me get better soon. Having my bandages changes wasn't too fun either, it was horrible. The bandages stuck to my skin and made things really uncomfortable when they pulled on it. At first I tried being a good girl and grind my teeth every time it hurt, but after a while the pain became so unbearable that I started to scream and cry. It made me so tired, that I went back to sleep after they were done.

* * *

><p>I was not allowed to set foot outside the room until mama gave her okay and the sun has rose and set 3 times already. I didn't know where this place was exactly, it was quiet during the day, and as soon as the sun set, there would be music playing and loud voices of men and women booming from the rooms. On the fourth day I was in that room, papa finally made an appearance, and lucky for me, the pain was getting duller and my strength was coming back to me. I was just about ready to go greet him when I learned of his presence about him being back when I heard voices outside my room.<p>

"She doesn't remember anything Antoine" I heard my mother say.

"How can she? You saw what she looked like when she was brought back to us" I heard papa's voice at last. I sat back down on the bed knowing that they would eventually come inside the room.

"So, what do we do?" she whispered

"We can ask her to try and-"

"No! That's out of the question!" she hissed at him. Where they talking about me, I sank back down into my bed and waited for them to finish their conversation.

"THEY DEFLOWERED HER! A CHILD!" father's voiced boomed. What flower were they talking about?

"hush! She's sleeping." There was a silence for a bit before mama's voice picked up again. "Do you honestly think it's wise to ask her to remember something so horrible?"

"We promised her father we would protect her"

"She's my daughter" she said softly, maybe they were talking about someone else. "Do you think we should tell her?"

"I don't know my love, maybe we should wait, until I find the bastards who hurt her!"

"Antoine, please"

"What kind of parents would we be if we let those who hurt her walk free" growled papa. I was confused.

"Antoine" said mother again

"They will regret the day they set eyes upon her"

"Antoine"

"They messed with the wrong girl"

"Antoine!" yelled mother "Let's go see her first"

I sank back down on the bed further and closed my eyes when I heard the door open, I was confused, were they talking about me? Or did someone else get hurt? I wanted to know, I was a curious person and papa always said to be careful with this 'talent', he called it, cause it get me hurt. The door closed with a light squeak, their footsteps hardly made any noise as they walked towards the bed. I felt a shift towards the bed and the light of the candle was shone passed my closed eye lids disappeared. A rough hand placed itself on my forehead and slowly started caressing my hair.

"We have to find them" papa said in a whisper "It's a guardian's duty care for their children"

"I know, I'm afraid of she will remember" spoke mama

"She will one day"

"Let's hope that day comes later, maybe after she's married, with children"

"What are we going to the her father when he finds out?"

"The truth...I guess" she said so quietly, she was so unsure of herself and that wasn't like her.

"That she was captured and tortured by templar?" papa stopped stroking my hair.

I felt mama's breath tickle my left arm as she grabbed my hand. "I don't know Antoine" she signed "Do you remember when we first saw her?"

"How could I forget? She was so small" he said as he resumed petting my hair.

"When we took her, we promised her father that we would protect her, make sure she never lived that life, but she ran right into it"

"It was destined to be"

"But destiny made her forget" the room went silent "what do we do?" mama broke the silence

"What we've always done, fight for what we believe in"

"I don't want that life for her Antoine, no girl should have to chose between her birthright and a normal life" I gave up trying to understand what they were talking about, I just listened.

"Neither do I Amelia. Do you think it's the vision, that why the grand master was against her staying with her mom?"

"Her mother was normal from what I know" said mama "And I heard her brother is also, but he's been training him."

"Then I really hope he takes over this god forsaken legacy"

I was drifting in and out of sleep, the conversation they were having was foreign to me. For as long as I could remember Antoine and Amelia were present in my life, they never spoke of these other parents I'm supposed to be having, it really didn't make sense. I knew children were not brought to parents my giant bird like they told me once, but right now, I might actually believe that. Papa continued to pet my hair and mama was rubbing my hand with her thumb, it was nice, this was my home, these were my parents. Maybe they were talking about someone else.

Time passed and mama and papa's conversation got weirder, I was even more confused than before. They spoke of fortresses and lands far away from Italia, from the East, of magic and templar's and assassin's. Things that sound like they were brought out of old folk tales, it was very interesting, it felt like I was being told a bedtime story and my mind slowly started to drift to sleep.

After a couple of days, I could stand and move around but I wasn't allowed to leave the house, the most I had seen of the outside world was the garden near behind the home of Paola for some fresh air. I also found out that we were living in a bordello, and to my surprise, the women in here were nice and strangely normal. Whenever I heard women speak of courtesans, they made them seam inhuman and heartless like witches, that they were out to collect the souls of men, but they never did anything bad to papa other than treat him with respect.

When I finally got to talk to papa, I didn't mention anything I heard that night, it almost felt like a dream. Sadly, I realised the reality of the situation whenever I looked at my father's eyes. Usually, he would stare at me with proud eyes, shoulders apart and back strait, he always had a small smile lingering on lips. Lately, however, his eyes were sad, his shoulders were slumped and his smiled seamed forced. I think he felt guilty about my injuries, like it was his fault. What was even stranger then his change in attitude was his work habits, he would stay out all night and would come back early in the morning to check on me, then he would head out again. His clothing had also changed from his usual green doublet into a large white vest that went down to his knees and a red cape with little golden circles on his right shoulder.

The following week was one I wish I could forget, the first shock came to me in the middle of the night, about an hour before sunrise. Most people in the bordello were asleep at that hour at the exception of the women that had to clean. Suddenly a loud crash woke me up, there were screams coming from downstairs. I took the blanket off myself and run down the stairs , I saw a couple of girls running upstairs to hide I presumed. When I reached the back of the house, where a crowd had gathered I made my way towards it. I tried to get passed the small gathering to see what was going in the garden to wake people up so late, I crouched down and decided to use my small size to pass between the legs of one of the courtesans.

When I finally reached the other side of the door I saw a white piece of clothing on the ground covered in blood, a couple of feet away, near the garden entrance, stood a man in orange stockings, a green doublet and a familiar gold cape at his feet was a person in a white cape holding on to someone. The cried coming from the person told me it was a woman, but her speech was un-understandable. I saw Paola yelling at a man that looked like a thief, saying something about a doctore. The man in the gold cape walked towards her and shooed away the thief. To my dismay, I looked back down to the where the woman in the white cape stood when I saw a familiar head of curly sandy blond hair popping from the side of her arm.

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><p><strong>Like I said, Cliffhanger, Mouhahahaha! *cough* *cough* excuse me *_*<strong>

**I really wanted to upload this by friday but I got sidetracked, from now on I will try to upload friday/saturday just no later than sunday. I found a couple of really great AC fics, I don't know why but these days I've been loving Altair a lot, he's so mysterious it give a writter room for interpretation! If you get the chance, althought I know not many people read my fic, check out Always Watching, it's really awsome. **

**An Escort's Journey, a completeted Altair fic, I really liked it. **

**I think many people know Just beyond my reach, my assassin, its pretty awsome also.**

**I also started watching The Borgias, and I'm started to fall in love with the Rodrigo in the show, and I LOVE, I really mean LOVE Francois Arneau, fellow french canadian hihihihi. It's made me want to start a fic on the Borgia family also.**

**Ok, back to this fic, I will try my best to upload the next chapter by saturday at the lastest, and I'll start working on future chapters, Ezio will be in the next chapter, I'm just not sure if I want him to meet Isobella yet. let me know, please Review!**

**Kamsahamida (thats thank you in korean)**

**Edit: Hello everyone, as you can all see I didnt really update the day I said I would, for a good reason! I just came home from school last week and my mom refuses to give me the wi-fi password, I'm going to have to bribe someone to be able to get it, or find a way to post up the chapter I just wrote. So please bare with me. Thank you so much for your understanding.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I'm so sorry for not updating sooner, its been a wild couple of days.**

**I would like to thank you all for taking the time to read my story, I know its not the best but I appreciate it a lot. I hope that all you're questions will be answered in the fallowing couple of chapters. **

**I re-wrote this a couple of times cause I wasn't really getting the right emotional pattern for it. I don't know if I achieved it but let me know. Thanks once again.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 6<strong>

My legs were frozen, they shook with fright underneath me, like I weighed so much I couldn't stand. My head felt heavy, my eyes started to water and burn again. I clutched onto my broken arm as the entire world around me turned black, I looked around me and saw small sparks of blue light flying around me, most of it flying towards the two seated figures that now glowed a bright blue. I took small shaky steps towards the two figures, the sobbing of the women was started to become clearer. I could hear the heavy breathing of the man on her lap, there was a strong smell of iron coming from them too. The exchanges behind me were also becoming more coherent.

"La paubre bambina!"

"A dio mio"

"Somebody do something"

Suddenly I felt a pair of hands grab my shoulders and the whole world regained its color. "Bambina, let's go" I heard a familiar voice say.

I shook my head furiously, ripping myself away from the hands and kept walking towards the figures in front of me. The women in the white hood turned to me with blood shot eyes.

"Isobella! Get out of here!" she yelled at me

"Maman!" I yelled back, afraid of her eyes. My eyes shifted from her face to her hands, they were holding a wound right under papa's left shoulder. "Papa!" I bolted towards them.

He held up his shaking hand towards my face. "Ma cheri" I shifted closer to his hand and held it to my face. The burn in my eyes became more intense, I could feel hot tears roll down my cheeks.

"Papa" I said slowly "Sa va? What's wrong? Maman? Papa ira bien non?" I said looking back up at her. At times like this she would reassure me and says everything would be ok, like the time our puppy died. But the look in her eyes was sad, they were red, they had these huge dark circles under them, her luminescent blue eyes were almost dark, even her hair looked lifeless. She looked back down at papa and stroked his face. She started mumbling words to him in a language I didn't know with water running down her eyes.

"Ma puce" papa's shaky voice came again "I'm sorry" he said to me.

"Pourquoi? (why)" I said holding on to his hand harder "You have nothing to be sorry for!"

"I failed! I couldn't protect you"

"No papa, you don't need to, I'm strong, from now on I'll protect you and mama, ok! Don't worry"

"I'm sorry cara!"

"PAPA! I don't care! It's okay, I'm okay, please! Please stay with us, don't leave…don't die" I placed my hand on top of mama's, they were warm and sticky.

"Bonita" mama began to say but was interrupted my papa's words

"I'm sorry I couldn't be a real father to you…"

"Gilberto" suddenly, a man came next to me, I looked over at him and saw it was the man in the gold cape.

"Come on pecina (little one), the doctore will take care of your papa" he said with a soft voice. I shook my head to say no and scooted closer to mama.

"Please bonita, your papa will never get better if he's talking." I felt an going arm under my knee and I was picked up and taken into the house.

I couldn't hold back the screams as I was dragged into the house, I didn't want to be inside, I wanted to go back and stay at papa's side. I tried to struggle out of the man's grip, but he was too strong, and he held me like I was but a small animal in his arms. I tried yelling at him, but he just gave me a smile, I tried whining, but his face stayed stoic, I even tried pleading to him. "please" I said to him "s'il te plait" he didn't move "Per favour" I tried again "I beg of you, let me see my papa" I said for the last time. My head was pounding, my mind was quiet, just a small buzz came out of my ears. My burning eyes were now dry and tired. I wanted to go to sleep but I couldn't.

"You're too young for this" he finally spoke. My eyes shot up at him, I was almost baffled at the sound of his voice. He was staring down at me trying to force a smile, but his sad eyes gave it away.

"What name have they given you, Fathya" he said balancing me on his knees.

"Isobella" I was too tired to struggle right now, somehow, my mind told me that there was nothing I could do anymore. I couldn't heard anything from the outside. "What's your name?" I asked him.

"They call me Volpe" he said to me. I furrowed my brows and gave him a strange look. "You're the one that found me?" he nodded his head. "Are you part of a circus messer Volpe?" I asked him.

He gave a small genuine chuckle. "No, what makes you say that?" he asked.

"Why did your parents call you Volpe?"

He pinched my cheeks and smiled at me."I chose the name pecina"

The door opened and Paola finally came in, she looked at me with sad eyes then looked up at Volpe and shook her head. He closed his eyes and let out a loud sigh. I understood what this meant, it was not good news, something really bad happened outside. I clutched to my broken arm and silently started to cry for my papa. I quietly moved away from messer Volpe and started to make my way towards the door, but Paola picked me up before I could get near it and led me upstairs. I could heard mama's quiet sobbing outside, she needed me, I had to see her and tell her something to make her feel better. But I just turned my head and started crying harder than before on Paola's shoulder.

The next couple of days, people started to gather for a funeral. I stayed quietly upstairs, with only Annetta to keep me company every now and then. Mother barely came to see me, and I didn't feel like getting out of the room. She usually stayed up all night and spent most of her time outside the bordello, only coming back in the early morning. She was a lot quieter than before, and maybe I was wrong, but I had not seen her cry since the say papa died. They told me that they would bury him outside the city, because he was not part of a Florentine church. There was no cemetery outside of the city, so they buried him near a tree, with only a couple of small rocks shaped like a cross on his grave.

My parents were catholic, but they never thought me the religion, and I don't know why. Although I knew there had to be a member of the clergy here, there was no priest or Harold or whatever they call them giving him his rites, only a couple of thieves and courtesans, Paola, Annetta, Volpe and mama and me.

The day after the funeral, mother came to wake me up gently, to make sure she didn't frighten my being. I figured it was early morning, or late at night, the sun hadn't come up yet and the moon was gone far behind the tower of the Duomo. Mama was dressed in a brown hooded Harold's robe, her long her braided to the side.

"Get dressed" she whispered to me.

"Mama..." I began but she cut me off...

"Does your arm still hurt?" she said in a concern voice. I shook my head, it's been a little over 3 weeks since I woke up, most of my wounds were healed. I could move my arm enough to get dressed on my own, but still, I could not recall anything that could have happened.

"Are we leaving mama?" she nodded to me. I got up and made my way over to the dresser and started to change into my trousers.

As I got ready to take off my chemise, "Wait" mother called out. "Sit here" she said pointing at a chair near a candle.

I sat, and mother had started to go through my hair, brushing it slightly. She always liked to have my hair long so that she would play with it and make crazy braids from time to time, but it was short now. I had begged mother to cut my hair on my birthday because it was hard to practice with, and with the help of papa...he convinced her to cut it somehow.

"I'm sorry" she said quietly. "We're going to have to leave Italia"

"Where are we going?"

"We are going to see someone"

"Who is that someone?" I said staring at nothing in particular, my mind still thought of papa.

"Someone, that loves you very much, and would stop at nothing to protect you" she said. It sounded like papa.

"Where is that someone?" I asked.

She let go of my now braided hair, sat in front of me and cupped my face in her hand. I could see her eyes were moist with tears threatening to fall.

"Bonita..." she was caressing my face with her thumb. "I've always been...selfish, when it came to you. I don't want to share you" she stopped talking for a second and grabbed hold of my hands. "I was blessed with your presence and I want you to know...I want you to remember, that no matter what happens, you are my baby, my little girl and I will always love you" she said with tears running down her face.

"I love you too mama" I said jumping into a hug.

She held me back for a bit "We have to leave bonita, do you still have that paper messer Auditore gave you?"

"Si!"

"we are going to a place where they still speak that language"

"What is that language mama? I've never seen it before."

"It's Arabic"

"Ara- what?" I said trying to make sense of what she said.

"A-ra-bic" she slowed it down "We are going to a place called Palestine."

Palestine? I've never heard of it before, I wasn't even sure if it was in Europe. One thing was for sure, it would be far away from here, I probably wouldn't see most of the people in Italia for a really long time. The simple thought that we weren't going to travel without papa scared me. The road is a dangerous place, mama always said, specially for girls, I got a sick feeling at the pit of my stomach just thinking about it. Mother had her hair braided and pinned to her head, her eyes looked tired and old. She wore no make-up like she usually did, her long Harold robe hung flat on her and made her look like a different person, but her moved with such grace that it gave the impression that she was floating.

She had made me change out of my trouser and into a dress, she had my hair coiffed and pinned them to my head hard and gave me a comfortable pair of shoes to wear. The dress mama had given me was very different from the one Claudia had made me wear. It was a dark brown and grey and tied at the waist with rosemary, sort of like the ones Annetta used to wear. What I didn't know was how itchy the material was.

Speaking of Claudia, I had no idea where she was, Mother had told me she went further into Toscana with Ezio and his mom, but we haven't heard of them after that. I wonder if they knew my papa was gone too? They would probably know how empty I felt.

We were finally all packed and ready to leave, we mostly took food and water, once again indicating to me it would be a long journey ahead. Sadly one thing I knew too well was that the bread was only worth eating the first two days and after that it would get hard. Mamas told me we would be heading to Forli first, and then take a boat from there.

When we left the bordello, it was still dark outside; there was no moon out so it was very dark. The stars were barely visible as well, I didn't like it. I scooted closer to mama and felt a lump near her thigh, a sword that belonged to papa. She put her hand on my head and kept on walking. I found it strange no one was out, at this hour there would usually be guards on duty patrolling the streets, and considering the amount of guards that had been around since the day of the execution and now, the only thing I heard was the sound of my footsteps. But when we had gotten to the gates of the city, I had gotten my answer.

There stood a number of guards, all very well equipped at the roofs of the houses near the gates, probably archer. There was a row of men in front of the gate of the city, at the staples, near the travel station, there was a tall man, sitting with his legs crossed, he had bright orange hair like I'd never seen before and skin so white that it glowed in the darkness of the night.

Mother shoved me behind her cursing under her breath, she started to look around for a place to run. Suddenly she grabbed me by the arm and started to run towards the direction of the city, but we were met with a wall. I could still her eyes scanning her surroundings. She picked me up and walked m over somewhere, then one second I'm staring at the northern star, the next my vision is obscured and I felt small prickles on my skin.

I took my head out of the hay cart mother had put me in, but she put her finger to her mouth and whispered "Don't move."

I watched her run towards the men near the travel station, she crouched behind the stables. She started to fumble with her long robes looking for something when suddenly, something dropped from her creating a loud noise. The man with the orange hair stood up abruptly with his weapon out and ready. He started barking orders to the men around him as they started to look for the source of the noise.

"You! Up there!" he said pointing to the men on the roofs. "En garde!" he said in a thick French accent.

The men started to run around the gates looking behind carts, houses and sales stands that were now closed. Some of then ran right past the cart I had been hiding in. Thankfully, none of them went towards where mama was hiding. I shifted in my cart to get a closer look at the action going on in front of me, unfortunately, my legs had different plans for me and gave out making me land on my injured arm.

"Ahh!" I gripped on my arm, feeling the bone moving a little. I tried to make the pain stop by clutching on it, but it didn't make a difference. Without a warning I felt a hand grab hold of my hair and pull me out of the hay. "Ouch! Ai! Ai!" I tried to scream out of the grip on my hair.

"Maestro! I found someone!" Yelled the man, now holding me by the collar.

"Bring them here!" he said again in his thick accent.

I was half dragged, half walked towards the strange looking man near the staples. When I got to him, the man crouched down to me level. I clutched onto my arm looking behind him hopping mother helped soon. I felt his hand grab my chin and turn my head from side to side.

"Look at me petite!" I stared right at him, I could finally make out his features. He had a long broken nose, a set of big pink lips and big green eyes. His orange hair stuck to his pale forehead, just above his pale golden eyebrows. His face, along with his lips, eyelids and everything in between was splattered with light brown freckles. He looked really strange.

"What are you doing out this late" he said to me. I didn't answer, I don't think he liked my silence cause he flicked his fingers on my forehead. "Parle! Dit quelque chose" he said again. I opened my eyes wide and just waited for something to happen, like someone was holding me telling me to wait.

The man let out a sigh. "Are you a mute?" I didn't say anything, let him believe that.

"Tell me where you live, I'll have my men take you home" my mind and body were still being held by that strange presence.

"Fine, don't speak! But at least lead them to your home! It's dangerous out here for little girls!" his accent was getting familiar. He wasn't from southern France that's for sure, he sounded noble also, maybe he was from the French court.

While all the attention was turned on me, I spotted a shadow moving around the staples. The horses were probably asleep by them because they didn't move, I wonder if horses slept like cows? I watched the shadow from under my lashes. Suddenly one of the horses let out a loud yelp and started running in my direction. Another one soon fallowed, I ran from the horses and hit one of the guards with a bow. Before the man could even look down, he dropped at my feet, when I looked down at him, he had a silver knife in his neck. I turned to run away from the dead man but a horse ran right passed me making me fall flat on my bum.

"Men, the assassin is here! Search the parameters!" yelled the orange haired man. I saw another man running in front of him drop, his eyes fallowed the falling man before looking back up at me. "Grab the little girl! She's helping the assassin" he said pointing his sword at me.

One of the men ran towards me at full speed, he had a long sword at his hand. As I watched the man coming towards me, a long shadow came out of the dark wearing a long robe and fell on the man. As they both fell something warm came in contact with my face.

"Isobella, Run!" said mama. I got up as fast as I could. My head was spinning hard, everything looked so familiar, like I had seen it before. I took a shaking hand to my face where the warm was splattered. I looked back up at mother and saw that she was strangling another man to his death. As she took her hands away from the man, he fell to the floor like the other. I notice, from her hands, a small shining object coming from her right wrist, with something dark dripping from it.

"RUN!" she yelled again and so I did, I ran as fast as my feet could take me. I ran passed many houses, I could hear men behind me yelling orders at one another as they fallowed. But I didn't look back to check, I just ran, passed the many churches in the city of Firenze when I suddenly realised something. I made a sharp turn into a corner and waited for a bit until some of the men ran passed me, then turned to the large house with the cross on top and started banging on the door.

"HELP! AYUDO! PER FAVORE! HELP!" I said as I started yelling and banging on the door. "I call for sanctuary! Help!"

I heard from fumbling behind the door and a loud growl coming from a person, something opened, them closed, then open and closed again. When the door opened I was met with a short man with very little hair that looked incredibly irritated in herald's clothing.

"What. What! WHAT!" he said a number of times.

"Please padre" I said trying to regain my breath. "My mother!" I took a deep breath again. "My mama...please...padre...my mother, she needs help...she's in danger...per favour, padre."

He scratched his hairless head and gave out a sigh. "How is she in danger?"

I clutched on to his robes. "There are some guards trying to hurt her! Please... Padres, help her!" he yanked his robes away from my grip, I lost my footing and fell to the ground still trying to regain my breath. He brought his hands together and started mumbling prayers, he turned his attention back to me and studied my face for a bit.

"I cannot help your mother..."

"PADRE!"

He held his finger up to shush me "Quiet! Let me finish! This is the house of god, if you wish salvation for your mother, get on your knees and pray to our lord." He finished

"How do I do that?" I said getting back up. If there was any hope to save my mother from those scary men, I would do it. I wasn't going to stop, there was no way mama can take on all of those people at once. Maybe it was my fault, if I had just stayed still in the first place, I wouldn't have gotten hurt and mama would have done something. I was quietly sobbing while the man studied my face in disbelief.

"Padre, please, she's all I got! Please show me how to save her." It's true, mama was all I had in this world, and the thought of losing her made me lose it. I had lost it. I can't live without a father and mother, that kind of thing didn't happen. Fate would not be as cruel as to leave me alone in the world. Would it?

"Fallow me" said the priest. He lead me to the altar without a word and pointed at the small stairs under the cross. "Now get on your knees, put your head down and pray. Ask your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to save your mother's soul."

I got on my knees and folded my hands and looked up at the man hanging from the cross. "My lord and saviour, I seek for your help. My mother is in grave danger, some bad men want to kill her" I started crying again, I felt my eyes prickle and felt the hot tears streaming down my face. "Please my lord, I promise to dedicate my life to you, to pray every second of the day and spread your word if you can save my mother. She's all that I have, please don't let cruel fate take mama away from me so soon after papa..." I started rocking back and forth "I don't want to bury her yet" I whispered.

I started to murmur "Please" I can't live without her.

"Please" softly so no one else could hear.

"Please" I could only hear my heart still beating hard under my ribcage.

"Please" nothing else matered.

"Please" I continued to rock back and forth.

"Please" There was a loud noise at the door, but it didn't matter.

"Please" I heard the priest yell at something.

"Please" there was another noise.

"Please" someone shook me. "Please" I kept murmuring, the person shaking me shook me harder and started to yell my name.

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><p>It felt as though the earth reflected my anger. There were dark clouds starting to cover the full moon, raging winds blowing away trash towards the people trying to get home. I pulled my hood down further trying to disappear into my clothes, but I was still there. I grabbed hold on my flying cape and placed it firmly on my lap.<p>

There I was leaning against the roof garden of the bordello I had taken refuge in a couple years ago, and I still hadn't gotten inside, my thoughts kept going back to today's events. I slipped inside the roof garden and let my back slide down to the floor, the drapes of the small enclosed area stood flying around me creating a loud noise. Maybe should be happy for her? Definitely, I should be happy for her, she got to choose her own husband, a chance not many girls in her position had. And he loved her. What could I have given her anyway? A life of pain and worry, a chance to be widowed at a young age, to be caught in this ugly world of mine? I put my gloved hand on my lips, trying to remember how her lips felt on my own, it would probably be the last time I kissed her, the last time I heard her moaning my name, last time I held her.

"Cristina" I whispered out her name unconsciously.

Suddenly there was a loud thud that hit the roof jolting me out of my thoughts. I sat up straight and peeked out from behind the drapes of the roof garden. There was a shadowed figure on the roof, walking around as if to make sure no one was around. I finally got a good look at the figure when the moon came out from behind a dark cloud. I was a young girl, in very weird clothing. They were not entirely men's clothes, nor were they female's. She wore black stockings and a white tunic with a bodice over it, there was a belt at her mid-section with what looked like a large fan hanging from it, on top of it all she wore a long pink coat that looked like the outer part of a dress. Is this what Paola is dressing the girls like these days? She turned around and looked straight at the roof garden, I tried to get a good look at her face, but another gush on wind passed wiping her hair and coat to the side. Her attention turned to the room at the top of the house, very much like the one I slept in at Monterigioni. She gave 3 sharp knocks at one of the windows until someone came to open it, and she disappeared behind the window.

As if on cue, thunder clapped as, a strong wind picked up and the sky turned even darker. Thunder started to clap loudly again, I was sure I had seen lighting hit somewhere. I got out of the roof garden and started to make my way to the door of the bordello, I needed a place to stay, and I couldn't bring myself to stay at Leonardo's. I was sure Paola wouldn't mind letting me stay here for a while.

I entered the inside of the bordello, and realised it hadn't changed much the pass couple of years. It still smelled like a strong mix of perfumes with music playing loud enough to distract from the storm raging outside. I walked passed a couple of women trying to get my attention to get to the room of the madam. I walked through the familiar corridor and stood in front of the door that said "Carpe Diem". I knocked on it until I heard a very faint

"Come in."

As I walked through the door, I realised that nothing had changed. I had spend so many night here during those two weeks after the execution, trying to figure out how to get to Uberto Alberti and find Isobella, to the point where I knew every detail, every scent of this place.

"Ezio?" I heard someone say. I fallowed the voice sitting on the bed, where a woman with long brown hair, and a simple yellow dress sat with a swollen stomach.

"Bella!" I said approaching the woman with the brown almond shaped eyes with a beauty mark on her check. She got up with great difficulty and walked towards me wobbling like a duck.

"Stand still" she said gesturing me with her hand "The room is spinning." And so I obeyed the very pregnant Annetta as she made her way towards me. I couldn't help but have a large smile on my face seeing the woman that had been around us for so long like this. When she reached me, she wrapped her arms around me.

"Look at you! Did you get taller?" she said with her belly restricting me from her.

"Annetta!" I said grabbing hold of her even harder. "You look magnificent!"

"Aye, the years have been kind to me." She said smiling. "And you? Last I heard you had disposed of that young vieri that was always bothering you" she said holding her stomach.

I lead her to the bed and sat her down. "Yes, I'm actually here trying to find the other Pazzi men. They're up to no good I'm afraid." Suddenly she grabbed her stomach and shut her eyes in displeasure. "Annetta?"

She held her hand up to me again. "Oh, I'm fine, he's just as restless as his father"

"I hear that most women love this time of their life."

"Yes, most I'm sure. But I'm tired of being pregnant now." She looked down at her stomach and spoke to her child. "I just wish you would come out and run around like your sister."

"A sister! Wow you're husband must not be able to keep his hand off you"

She gave me a small laugh. "He's a passionate about his work and family."

"What does he do?"

"He's a blacksmith, a very good one. Paola introduced us a while back, when I still worked for your family. He's absolutely amazing with everyone. Hey!" she nudged me "I'm sure if you can get on his good side, he can give you discounts like he does with Isobella."

"Isobella?" I furrowed my brows and looked up at her. "Is she still..." did I just hear her right? "she's...alive?"

"But of course! She's growing to be a wonderful young lady."

"Since when?"

"When what?"

"No one told me she was alive." I could feel my heart beating harder than before, my breath was growing short, my ears were on fire. "Is she alright?"

She gave me a small smile. "she's...After all that's happened. She survives."

"Where is she? Where does she live?" I wanted to see her, to look at her face, to get that ugly image out of my head. After I heard what had happened to the Marino's, I felt so worthless, so inferior, so powerless...

"She lives here. She's been working here" she said smiling.

"WHAT!"

"Oh, no, not like that..." she blushed for a second " she run's errands, bothers the girls, plays chess with some customers." She said disregarding my first thought. "But Ezio, I worry about her. She's been hanging around with some strange people, she's running around even more then she used to when you guys were around, and she's always smiling. Now I know she's young, but...it's like...oh it's hard to explain, but I'm sure you'll see what I mean."

"Where is she?" I whispered.

"In my old room."

I looked at her face, the bright smile she was giving me earlier turned sad. "I'm sure she'll be happy to see you." I gave her a small kiss on the forehead and walked out of the madam's room.

I looked up at the second floor of the house, contemplating my choices, when it hit me. Annetta's old room is the one on the very top of the house, the roof room. Could that strangely dressed girl be Isobella? Even if it was, would she want to see me? The last image I have of her was the one with the blood dripping off her head, the image I seen in my worst nightmares. The one of my family dangling at those ropes...of Isobella hanging lifeless from the arms of that guard, I felt my mouth turn sour just thinking about it.

I had gotten in front of the stairs leading up room Annetta used on my stay here, I took small steps towards it. I didn't know what I would see there, it was like when Claudia was born, all I heard was screams in the room for hours and hours, and then the maids told me to go in and I was terrified. Would she be mad at me? It's my fault if she ever gotten hurt, if I had only saved her on time, her parent would probably still be alive. I lifted my hand up to knock on the door when suddenly if opened before I could put my hand on it.

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><p><strong>Helloo! Finally the next chapter, I would like to apologize to all of those who we're fallowing my story once again. But sadly I don't think I'll be able to update every week anymore. First of all, I finally got a JOB! Woot woot, I'm excited, but because of that, I have to find time to write out the next chapters, then type them and post them.<strong>

**Also! I found the tv show Gargoyles on youtube, and I've been hooked on it, reminiscing the old days when tv cartoon were da shiet! Its honestly cry worthy.**

**I've been procrastinating a lot, but that's because I'm Captain Jack Sparrow High, I saw POTC4 and although it's not as awesome as the other ones, I fell in love with Jack Sparrow all over again. I saw hangover 2 as well... FUCKING HILARIOUS!**

**Anyways, until next time, I already started working on the next chapter. Hope you liked it REVIEW PLEASE, I need constructive criticism on this. I need to know how bad my English is also.**

**Edit: Expect the next chapter withing the next couple of days. Technology is truly a bitch, you can't live without it, and yet it makes you're life a drag! Please be patient.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:First of all I apologize for not being able to post every week, work is just so hectic. I usually work my butt off during the summer to save enough money for September, and I just found a job not too long ago and I made about a half a grand. Only 5 more to go.**

**I would like to thank all of my reviewers, you make my world go round, and I LOVE YOU. I would also like to thank the people who have added this story to their alerts/faves, I truly appreciate it, I just you could also give me some feedback. And last but not least, I would like to thank all those who are just coming in to read, knowing that there are people who are reading my story makes me all giddy inside.**

**THANK you, now on to the chapter.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 7<strong>

I stood there for a moment chocked not knowing exactly what to do. As the door pushed forward, I followed it until my back hit the wall and I was facing the back of the now open door. The person that opened it turned around to close it, but instead of turning away to leave, they stayed in place.

My eyes stared at the floor, afraid to see who had come out of that door. First thing I saw was a red skirt on the floor covering black shoes. My eyes followed the dress up carefully looking to the unmoving owner face. I heard a small chuckle coming from a soft familiar voice.

"I had a feeling I would see you soon" said her familiar voice.

My eyes shot up to meet her dark eyes. "Paola..."

She extended her hand forward towards me "Come here, Caro". I grabbed her hand and gave a soft kiss on in letting my lips linger on it for a second. When I looked back up at her, her body stood strait with only her eyes peering down. She gave me a soft smirk before I actually went ahead to embrace her.

"Let us talk, we have much to catch up on" she said putting her hand softly on my back. I smiled at her, ready to fallow her down the stairs when I heard a cough. I turned back to the door, I could feel my body tightening at the sound.

"She just fell asleep." I heard Paola say.

"Already?" I whispered to myself.

She gave me a small chuckle "I'm afraid so, she's had a long day"

"What happened?" I said turning my body towards her completely.

"Come, let's talk downstairs"

Paola lightly put her arm around my elbow and allowed me to lead her down the stairs. I gazed down at the older woman and saw her large black eyes looking forward not giving me a glance, a small ghostly smile on her lips playing like always. I remembered when I first met Annetta, I imagine how visually gifted her family must have been, and seeing Paola now, I can see that the women in their family get more beautiful with age. She made a graceful turn onto a corridor I wasn't familiar with, it was darker than the rest of the bordello, no sound came from the area either. She opened the door of a dark room I was sure I've never been in before and walked around a bit until she lit a couple of candles. I started in awe as I was greeted with a counter full of drinks. Wine mostly. Large barrels displayed in a decorative manner graced the room. I yearned to taste the red liquid residing within them in hopes to lose myself for a couple of hours.

"Come, sit" said Paola gesturing me towards a small table with two barrels I presumed empty on either sides.

"Why didn't you tell me this is where you keep the wine before" I said to her.

She gave me a small throaty laugh "I pay for these Ezio, I didn't need you ravaging my pantry." She said grabbing a couple of jugs and a bottle.

"You would make me pay for these" I said quietly

"I would make you pay for those" she said handing me a glass she just filled. "But tonight, I'll make an exception." She winked at me.

"I'm flattered"

"You should be."

We laughed at each other and both taped our glasses together to toast.

"So, what brings you back here?" she said crossing her legs.

"Business" I was careful with my words, ever since I had met Uncle Mario, I grew suspicious of people, even those who had helped me before. I knew Paola was familiar with my father's work in more ways than one, but I couldn't help the doubt.

"Did you take over your father's work?" she interrupted my thoughts

I smiled at her , "I have" I said taking a swing of the sweet antique "but it's still just as confusing to me as the first day."  
>"Who is this person confusing you?"<p>

I stared at her for a bit, I wasn't sure how to word my confusion. "Back in San Gimignano, I heard the Pazzi men talking about some sort of plan, I got to their youngest, Vierri, but he wouldn't speak even as he died." I said thinking back to Vierri de Pazzi and the number of times I wished I could kill him...funny how life works isn't it? "The other men came back here, and I want to stop them before they start whatever they are planning"

"Do you know what it is they're planning?" she asked me. I shook my head to say no.

She put her elbows on her legs and looked down at the floor, thinking about something. She took a small sit of her cup and looked back up at me.

"You are going to need eyes and ears in the city."

"Who can I trust here"

She smiled "you have me and my girls, Ezio" she said looking up at me. "They can gather whatever information you might need."

"One of the men spoke of Roma"

"We have people in Roma too, Ezio."

"Courtesans?"

She nodded and started to speak again "we are not the law here my friend, the methods that we use are a little...different, from the teachings of the church. Can you abide to work with the thieves and whore of Italia?" I nodded to her in all seriousness; I understood what Paola was saying. The men whom killed my father all have a high ranking position. The ones whom are not corrupt are abiding to the wrongdoings of this man, the fat one that was with de Pazzi, he had also threaten Uberto Alberti with something regarding his family. Whoever he is, I need to get to him. "I know a man that can help also." said Paola dragging me out of my thoughts.

"Can we..."

"Yes, he's been working with Antoine since he's arrived in Italia."

"Antoine? Antoine Marino?" that was Isobella's father's name. I had heard her coughing earlier, I wonder if she's okay?

she gave me a small smile and nodded "yes, they knew each other since childhood. In fact, he found Isobella and brought her back to us" she said quietly.

There was a small silence for a bit. I was afraid to ask where she was during the two weeks I was here. Her father never mentioned her name around me, he was always so focused on helping me get to Uberto. I summoned the courage to ask. "What happened?" my voice barely made any sound almost as if voicing the guilt that felt heavy on my heart.

"I only know what I've been told..." she looked at the floor once again. "When...when Volpe came into the bordello, she carried her in a white clothe that was covered in blood. Most of us were sure she had died, but, she's been tortured"

There was a pang in my heart as she said tortured "What? But she's just...she was so..." could anyone do such a thing to a child.

"Death would have been best after losing so much blood. Volpe found her on the pier near the Arno" where I cremated my family "when he carried her in here, she didn't look human..." Her eyes carried forward and she shook her head. "She suffered from fever and delirium for the next couple of weeks until she woke up.

"Do you know who did that to her" my voice was shaking with anger, who would harm anyone so small and fragile. Even doing that to a boy her age was inhuman, but a small girl...only the devil can do such things.  
>"No, I'm afraid Antoine and Amelia kept it to themselves. I didn't want to ask her such a thing, it would be too cruel."<p>

I felt tears of anger forming in my eyes, I didn't know where to start talking, what to say anymore. Maybe, maybe she really won't want to see me, or maybe she'll blame me for all that's happened.

"This man that can help..." I quickly changed the subject before I let my anger get the best of me.

"Ah yes, Volpe, he's hard to get hold of."

"How can I find him?"

"You can find him, where you can find any other thief"

"The market?" She nodded. I gulped down the rest of my glass of wine. "Do you mind if..." I said as I got Off the barrel I'd been sitting on. She gave me a small smile and nodded her head.

I slowly made my way out of the room and laid my back on the door it as I closed it. I turned back to the corridor I had come from where the young girl was sleeping. Should I go wake her? Probably not a good idea, I turned away from the room and slowly made my way out of the bordello. I was wrong, maybe I should just go see Leonardo, and he's never minded having company. Better yet, I should start looking for this fox character, the sooner I was done with Firenze the better. I wouldn't have to face Isobella. Or maybe...

"Why can't you just make up your mind?" I yelled at myself. I suddenly realized I was standing in front one of the windows at the bordello roof room. A small chill had passed making me straiten my back, the wind had picked up again, and the sky was probably darker than before, I could barely see my own hand, the air smelled earthy and fresh and the ground was wet. Rain started pouring without warning again. There was big heavy rain drops started that pierced my head. "Cazzo!" I said reaching for the window in front of me.

Lucky for me the window was open so I didn't have to try and pick the lock. I put my legs over the window frame and took refuge in the room. I closed the window behind me and covered it with the drapes and turned to look at the room. I wouldn't stay long, just until the rain stops, and then I would wake up Da Vinci and beg to let me stay at his place, he is a nice man he wouldn't mind. Realization hit me like a ton of bricks when I saw where I was standing. Unconsciously, my vision turned, the entire room got darker than before, the heavy storm outside that gotten louder, and I heard the muffled sounds coming from inside the rest of the house and the slow even breathing of the glowing blue figure on the bed.

For the first time in nearly 10 years, I didn't have much control over my sight. It just turned on without a warning and caused a shard pain to go through my head. I stumbled back clutching to my head and hit my back on the wall behind me. There was a loud sound that passed through the room as a long metallic candle holder fell to the ground. The blue figure sat strait up and looked at the door, another sharp turn and she looked at the window. Time stood still, her eyes were looking directly onto mine and looked like they were...glowing? I could see her brows were in a frown, her hair sat around her shoulders creating these black messy curls that were apparent even through my vision. I could almost swear there was fire in her eyes. I took a step forward and ready to call out her name when suddenly... I was knocked off my feet, my face fit the ground first, and then a tight grip twisted my arm behind my back and pushed the rest of my body on the floor. I felt cold steel on my face pointing towards my neck and my arm was twisted even further into the painful twist.

I gave out a loud grunt. "Who are you?" said a soft hoarse whisper. I opened my mouth to say my name, but nothing came out, I opened my mouth to speak again but, again, I shut myself up.

"Papi, I don't think it's wise to just enter random rooms, you might find the devil behind the door." She said in a hoarse voice as she twisted my arm more painfully.

"Isobella..." The pain surge through my arm again as the metal went on to my neck.

"Who the fucks are you? Better start talking if you want to stay alive!" her voice changed in an instant, it went from a tired hoarse voice to a dangerous growl.

"It's me...Ez...Ezio" I felt my thumb being twisted adding to the pain going through my arm.

"Really, then I'm king Charles of France" I gave out another yell from in between my teeth, where the hell did she learn this!

"Iso...cazzo...you little devil! Let me go!" The young Isobella I knew wasn't like this, she would joke and insult me on a daily basis, and I never held back either, it was fun for us to do so. But this! Her voice the way she was holding me with such ease, granted she did take me by surprise, but this isn't normal, she's like this monstrous animal ready to rip my head off! I felt her grip loosen on me for a second and took the opportunity to push her off of me. She fell on the floor next to me, and before she could recover, I grabbed her by the shirt and pushed her on the wall...

"Fucking puttana, let go of me!" She grunted squirming away from me. I pressed my body on to hers and tried to get her to stop moving so much.

"Isobella!" She kept squirming "damn it stop! Isobella!...Isobel..." She kept moving without paying any mind to what I was saying.I felt her fingers pinching me on the arm where some of my skin was exposed. "Hey...hey...Isobella!...look...stop..." She kept struggling turning her head from side to side.

I lifted her from off the ground until she came to eye level with me. "Bella please stop, and look...it's me, it's Ezio" I put my forehead on hers "Isobella" I whispered once more. She finally stopped struggling, the glow in her eyes disappeared.

The storm outside had stopped, there was a small light coming from the side of the drapes I had closed earlier hitting the side of her cheek. I moved my hand forward and touched the light on her face, luckily she didn't move and let me run my fingers over her cheek. I moved away from her and let her legs touch the ground, and I put my hands up in surrender letting my vision turn back to normal.

"It's really me pecina" I could still hear her heavy breathing from the wall, she looked up at me then put her hands on the wall behind her and shook her head, she took a couple of deep breaths.

"I don't know...I...Ezio Auditore isn't in Italia anymore...I don't know who you are, but you've come to the wrong person as bait...so please, get out before I'm forced to draw blood." She said breathing hard. I walked up to her as fast as I could and put my hands on either side of the wall. I watched her flinch away from me, eyes shut tight and head turned to the side.

"Isobella Farid Marino!" I heard her inhale sharply. "Look at me!" She kept her head down "please just look at me" I pleaded. I saw her head go up and stare at me, she didn't move for a while, her eyes looked as though they were trying to scan me from under her hair. I saw her hand move to the side to push the drapes on the window beside us. My hand followed hers almost in a mirror like fashion, my eyes never left hers and pulled away the drapes enough to illuminate both of our figures.

"Look at me" I whispered to her. I saw her hand go up, trembling, reaching for my hood. Her familiar strange eyes squinting under her curly black hair, almost like she was afraid of what they would find behind the hood. As her hand got close enough to touch the fabric, she pulled away.

"Iso..." Her hand went forward towards my hood again, trembling even more, her lips we're quivering. She clutched to the fabric of the hood and pulled it down with her eyes closed. I brought my hand up to cup her face and ran my thumb over her red lips. She looked so pale. "Bella, it's me" I whispered at her.

Her hand was now on the collar of my tunic, her eyes open looking straight at the leather armour I had been wearing the past couple of months, probably smelled like blood and sweat. Her ghostly eyes slowly trailed upwards to my face. Her eyes landed on my mouth first, and then up to my nose, finally her eyes met mine. She gasped and took a step back. I could feel light goose bumps appeared on her skin as I moved towards her. She opened her mouth to speak but no words came out, her trembling hand moved away from my collar and slowly made her way to my cheek. Her hand stayed inches away, frozen in place, I could almost feel the warmth radiating from her skin, she bit her bottom lip and moved her hand away completely clutching it to her chest. I moved closer to her looking into her eyes, moved her hair away from her face

"bella..." She opened her mouth again, but nothing came. She finally moved her hand away from her chest and slowly, and carefully reaching for my face again. It seemed to take forever for her to acknowledge I was actually there, she looked like she had seen a ghost, like she was afraid her hand would go past my face once she touched me. I felt soft, warm fingers slowly creeping down my cheek until her entire hand came in contact with my skin.

"Ezio..." She said softly as if letting out a breath she'd been holding.

"Ezio" she said again caressing my face, then my hair with trembling hands. She let her hands drop to my chest, then my sides frantically touching me giving me nervous chuckles. "You're real!" She said cupping my face.

"I am" I said to her smiling. She gave me a small laugh, her eyes fully moisten with tears.

"You're real" she whispered again running her fingers through my hair and ears.

"I'm here, I'm real" I said my voice almost breaking.

I felt her try and get to eye level with me by getting on tippy toes, I felt her lips touch my Adams apple in a light kiss. She sniffed back tears and then gave me another light kiss on the jaw. I picked her up from the floor and got to eye level with her and let out a breath I'd been holding and smiled at her and let my lips run over her small nose. I felt her arms and legs wrap around my body and she started to cry. she pulled back again and kissed me on the forehead, then the cheek, then my other cheek I could feel her breath on my lips when she said: "you're really real" sniffing back tears. I held her with one hand as I used the other one to wipe her cheeks.

"I'm here, and I'm not leaving" I whispered to her as I gave her a smile. She gave me a light laugh and hugged me again, then pulled back and chuckled again.

"You smell really bad" she said laughing. I couldn't help but laugh, she sounded just the same.

I finally got a good look at her and saw how different she looked, her once round chubby face had become long and skinny, her cheeks so hallow her dimples seemed to have disappeared, her rosy lips had turned a darker shade of cherry. Her large almond shaped eyes had huge dark circles underneath them, but luckily her unique gray eyes remained unchanged as well as her long curly black hair that had a mind of their own. Most of all her voice, her once small high pitched voice was now low and hoarse, the pitch was gone and replace by a toneless stupor that sounded unlike her.  
>She played with my hair while looking into my eyes, tears streaming down her face. I could feel wetness dripping down my cheek as I looked back at her. She was alive...<p>

"Isobella" I said again almost not believing my eyes.

"You sure know how to make an entrance" she said twirling a strand of my hair in between her fingers.

"I'm sorry I woke you, amore" I said to her turning around.

She let one of her hands trace back to my cheek and then down of my chin tapping slowly. "I'm glad you did" she said caressing my chin softly with her finger.

"How are you" I said still balancing her on my hips with her legs wrapped around me, leading her on to the bed.

"Fine, how have you been" she said as I slowly dropped her on her bed, I let my body follow hers and laid on the bed also. I let her use my arm as a pillow as she scooted closer to me waiting for my answer.

"I'm fine now" I said as I put a loose strand of her hair behind her large ears. They had not changed either.

"And before" she said looking up at me. I ran my hand over her face and gave her a smile.

"I thought I'd never see you again" I said truthfully and moved closer to her.

"why is that?" she said still stroking my chin with her finger. "I'm not dead yet." I felt my heart skip a beat when she said dead, I grabbed her closer to me and held her tight.

"Don't say that"

"Was it that scary for you?"

"You have no idea" I whispered back to her stroking her hair. I thought back to that day, the day my family was killed, how lost and angry I was. How nothing in the world made sense to me anymore, how the world I knew turned upside down. I never imagined that one day I would live without my brothers that I would watch them hang from a rope, dead. Never.

I felt Isobella shift in my arms, I saw her sitting up, staring down at me biting her bottom lip. She moved down and moved my hair away from my face and placed a soft quiet kiss on my forehead. "Do you have a place to stay?" she asked me.

"No...not really" I said quietly, remembering why I had come to the bordello in the first place.

"Stay with me tonight" she said quietly. "I don't want to be alone"

I grabbed her hand and gave it a soft kiss."I won't leave you, no matter what."

I felt her squeeze my hand. "Alright, then please take off that thing you're wearing" she said gesturing to my armour. "It smells like a dead horse."

I got off the bed tugging on my wet leather armour, I undid the clip on my shoulder to undo my cape and let it fall of the ground. I looked over of the bed and saw Isobella covering her naked legs with her blanket.

"What's with the cape?" She said to me looking down.

"It's stylish" I said to her

She giggled with her new hoarse voice "you can't be serious..." She got back up and looked at me "are you?"  
>I took off my armour and large heavy tunic, and looked back at her. "I am...are you making fun of me segnorina?" I said jumping back to lie down on the bed.<p>

"Ummm, I'm not sure. Did it sound that way messere?" She said looking down at me with a crooked smile. "No, but honestly, it's stylish? Hahaha, Ezio Auditore, killing people, in style." She said in a deep voice.

"It belonged to my father." I said quietly. She stopped laughing suddenly and turned back to me. I knew she didn't know, but this tunic had become a part of me. It felt as though my father was there fighting with me every time I put it on. I felt her slide down the bed and she took me into her arms, cradling me like a child.

"Mi dispiache" she said stroking my hair, "I didn't mean to..."

"ummmmmm" I held her closer sinking into her chest "I know, I... I'm just being childish."

She looked down at me and cupped my face in her hands "No you're not. It's hard not to hold on to every single thing about them, knowing you won't be able to see their faces again... It's hard not to be afraid of the world...It feels like no one understands what you're going through...to feel alone and powerless." She said biting her bottom lip so hard, it felt like I would see blood.

I reached up to her cheek to wipe away the tears and looked straight into her eyes. "What happened?" I asked.

She tried to smile, but a sad frown took its place, she batted her eyes furiously "I...ummm" and then gave me a small barely there smile. "How... how are, your mother and Claudia? Are they safe?"

I couldn't imagine what such a young innocent soul could have gone through to have such hate and distress in their eyes. How horrible it must have been to be on the verge of death and came back only to lose your parents a while later.

"Ezio?"

"They're fine, they... they're living with my uncle, in Monteriggioni." I said automatically.

"And you? What are you doing?" she stared at me again with her eyes wide open, full of curiosity. I was amazed and afraid almost. One second there is this angry dangerous frown on her face, the next it's full of innocent curiosity.

"I...umm, I ... I took over my father's work"

She furrowed her eyebrows "So it's true?" she asked "This assassin business? And these bad people, templar knights" she said shaking her head in disbelief.

"Strange, isn't it?" I said lifting myself up on my elbow looking down at her. The mad frown was back, as well as this lopsided angry smirk.

"So, papa and mama, and your papa too?" I nodded "Did you know?" I shook my head "Do you think... you know...Federico knew?" she said quietly.

"Maybe, he did spend a lot of time with our parents." I said stroking her face with the tip of my fingers.

There was a comfortable silence for a bit before Isobella started speaking again. "You know," she said tapping on my chin again, stroking the small stubble growing. "I was to go to Monteriggioni."

"Really?" I said not minding that she changed the subject yet again to avoid talking about them. "When?"

"I'm not sure exactly when, but as soon as I got the permission from him."

"Who?"

She shook her head to dismiss it "Just someone, that's been helping me"

"You would probably see Mother and Claudia I presume"

She gave me a wide smile big enough that I could see the ghost of what was her dimples "Yea, I miss her"

"I'm sure she misses you, she would enjoy the company." I said thinking to my baby sister that was stuck in the villa "But why, would you go there."

I felt her hand sliding off of me, she then grabbed her right sleeve and pulled it up showing me a dark brazier of sorts attached to her forearm.

"I...I have some...some unfinished business to take care of" she said. She fumbled when the front of it for a bit and took something in between her fingers. She pulled on it revealing a long shiny blade, much like my own, only hers was hidden really well.

"Where...why are you wearing it now?"

"Papa Antoine's" she said "It was his, problem is, I can't take it off, at all" she said looking up at me.

"It's dangerous, isn't it?" she pulled on a cord, I'm guessing, and the blade retracted.

"Not really, it's very much under my control."

"And Monteriggioni, do you know uncle Mario?" I questioned, I had a feeling she's been hiding something from me.

She shook her head and looked up at me after hiding her brazier under her sleeve. "I don't know him personally, but he knows my real fath...my parents." She twiddled with her fingers a bit avoiding looking at me. "I was told he would teach me how to defend use a..." she looked up at me and stopped herself. "how to defend myself if I needed to" she corrected herself.

"Isobella" I was sure there was something she was not telling me, why she didn't completely trust me with her secrets. "I'll be there for you. You won't need to defend yourself."

I saw a small smirk play on her lips. "Even if that be, I would like to know how to protect myself from anyone trying to do me harm amici."

"I'm not the same person I was years ago, I can protect you" I assure her. I knew she just wanted to be safe, but honestly, it's more dangerous for her to be running around with a sword then it would be if she stayed in Monteriggioni with mother and Claudia. "You can come back to Monteriggioni with me, and you can live with us, I'm sure uncle wouldn't mind, it would mother some good to see you too I'm sure, and Claudia will probably love having you around..." she gave me a foul look that made me stop my rambling, there was that fire back in her eyes for a second until she spoke.

"I can take care of myself Ezio."

"Isobella, you don't have to."

She cut me off again. "I'm tired, go to sleep." She said turning her back to me.

"Stop trying to change the subject, Iso..." she cut me off again before I could finish.

She turned her body to me and put a leg in between my own, and put her arm around my body while her other hand stopped my lips from moving. She moved so fast and so gracefully that it almost seemed like she never turned around in the first place. "I'm tired caro," she said in her hoarse voice. "I had a long day, and I recently got better from a bad flue I had, however I'm still coughing a bit." I felt her hand slip under my shirt and caress my back with her thumb. "so please, quiet down, and go to sleep." She cuddled deeply into my arms as she shut me up for good.

I looked down at the young girl in my arms, it felt like she had been part of my life for so long, but she was so different from before. The young Isobella I had known was a jealous, loud, obnoxious child, always looking for fun, always looking to be the centre of attention, not to mention she didn't like me very much then. And now, she was like a snake in the grass, she was the same, yet different, she had grown smart, and she was so fast, I still couldn't get over how she knocked me off the floor so fast, or graceful she was when she turned around. The Isobella I had hoped to find from my old life was gone, in her place, there was this smiling young lady snuggling with me rubbing circles on to my back. I pulled her closer to me as my eyelids got heavy, and I had finally fallen asleep.

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><p>There was a hot bright light that hit my face directly, waking me from my beautiful dream. I turned from the light and tried to put my hand over the present I had gotten a couple of weeks ago from the seamstress. She had made me big animal like pillow that was almost half of my size. She gave it little ears like a fox's and stuffed it with feather then wrapped it all around in cotton. I gave her some extra money once for silk, stolen money of course, but she didn't mind, and she gave me this big surprised for my birthday. I moved my hand around on the bed trying to locate my pillow, but my hand just tangled in the drapes in was on. I tried to find my sleep again, but it was so hot, I couldn't do it anymore.<p>

I sat up tired, and tried to open my eyes carefully so that the hot light didn't burn them, sadly it didn't turn out that way. As soon as my eyes opened completely, the world around me turned dark, aside from the ghostly light coming from the windows. I shut my eyes tight and told myself there was no danger, everything was fine, it's just the sun and repeated them like a prayer.

I had become some sort of routine for me, I would wake up in mid afternoon, with too much sun on my face and my body would react to it like an attack was made on me. Volpe had told me that the vision was a talent not many assassins' we're lucky enough to possess, and that I should be thankful for it, but I still couldn't control it and it made things difficult for me. I would wake up every other morning to a black world and loud noises, and usually, it made the rest of my day horrible. He had been trying to help me control it for the past couple of months, he even sent letters to Mario asking for his help since he didn't possess it, however, Mario Auditore was the brother that didn't receive the gift, Giovanni did. He told me that he would send me to Monteriggioni as soon as I finished my work here, but after last night, I still had a long way to go.

We were meant to rob a bank on the upper rich district and find one of those codex things for Mario. Problem was, the owner had hundreds chests in there and I was alone there with only minutes to spare. I stayed inside the bank for about an hour longer than the 15 minutes Volpe had assigned me. I searched them frantically, tried to use my vision, only it didn't work like I hoped it would. The voices of the guards felt like they we're just near, my footsteps felt as though they could be heard from the other side of the town, and once I had located the chest, it got lost again in the huge bank. Once I had gotten out of the bank, I was lightheaded, so not only did I get noticed by guards on my way out, but I slightly hurt my wrist running away from them. The only good outcome of the night was that I found the bloody codex and it's fucking incomprehensible.

However, after that incident, I got a loud lecture from Volpe on time management and how important stealth was in a mission. I knew I wasn't that good, but in all honesty, he should have known better, sending someone like me to rob such a high class bank in so little time, I wasn't trained enough for that.

I threw myself back on my pillow and rolled until my dangled from the edge of the bed, I opened my eyes to look at the room upside down, and saw one of my candle holders had fallen.

"That's not where I left you" I said to myself. I pulled my legs up and flipped over the bed and looked at the rest of the room."Good, nothing else out of place." I said to myself.

I must be going crazy if I'm actually talking to myself out loud. I felt this shiver run up my spine, like I was being watched. I looked shifted my gaze to my right, where the door was, I peered down without moving my head, and saw a pair of black and silver buttons on a red cloth sticking from the side of the bed. I smiled to myself realizing it was my animal like pillow.

"There you are" I said again out loud. I walked towards the side of the bed threw it near my pillows then I started to dress. I took off the dirty chemise I've been wearing for the pass week and a half and put on some simple black trouser and white tunic, I put my belt on, with the deadly fan I had recently acquired hanging from the side and a couple of daggers hidden in place. Once I was done dressing, I looked up at the pillow still staring at me with those weird eyes of his. I had this weird feeling that I had forgotten something, something important.

I turned around chuckling, "I must really be going crazy, waking up this happy, and talking to myself, stuffed pillows giving me shivers. I must really be going mad."

I was ready to walk out of the room when I realized, my bed wasn't made, Annetta always made a fuss about me not being tidy enough, leaving my clothes lying around the room and dangerous stuff on the bed. I looked at the bed intensely, should I make you or not? I thought to myself. Why should I, I'm going to mess it up again tonight...I shook my head and turned around. As I faced the door I had this vision of the crazy, angry, pregnant woman yelling at me again, so I turned back to the bed. I shook my head again and turned away, what's the worst she can do? She can't even walk? I smiled thinking about how funny she looked when she walked. But she does hit really hard, so I turned back to the bed again. As I made my first step towards the bed, my door swung open and in came a half naked Jeroma.

"Hey sweetheart, Paola wants you" she said in her think Armenian accent.  
>I looked at her from top to bottom, Jeroma had always been content in her body, she is a very curvaceous woman with very big breast, and today, she decided it would be best to let them get some fresh air instead of covering in her tight corset.<p>

"Comfortable?" I said looking at her gigantic breasts. She laughed at me and signalled me to hurry up. I looked back at the bed and shrugged, then walked out of the room.

Paola sat in her bed wearing nothing but her chemise with a tray of food in front of her. Usually at this time, most of the girls would wake up and eat whatever food was left over from the night before for breakfast, only Paola got a fresh breakfast and some days, she felt generous enough to share with me.

"Pecina, hello! Come join me." She said holding up a glass to me. I walked up to her and sat on the bed taking the glass. I murmured a small thank you and started to drink the warm white liquid.  
>It was really good! The milk I get from her usually taste like blood and water but this was some sort of sweet, less bloody milk.<p>

"You like it?" She asked me, I nodded in affirmation "it's milk and honey, a customer suggested that for children your age"

"I'm not a child, Paola" I said stretching on the bed. "But this sure does make me sleepy, and your room is so refreshing."

She nodded and gave me some fruits. "I've been thinking" I said to her, chewing on the cherry she's put in my mouth.

"Uh oh" for reasons unknown to me, Paola had been incredibly weary of me the most of this year. I had developed some methods of persuasion that she wasn't comfortable with.

"This room..." She cut me off before I could continue.

"Get out" she said throwing an apple at me.

"But Paola"

"No, you are not getting my room" she said solemnly, with her royal like posture.

"I'll convince you one day" I said quietly hoping she hadn't heard.

"That's what I'm afraid of" she said to herself more than me. I walked over to the door with my apple still in hand. That damn woman had the hearing of a cat, you could barely hide anything from her.

"Be careful out there" she yelled at me before I walked out of the door.

"I will"

I walked through the corridor and passed the front door to get to the other side of the house. I've been here for so long now, spend 5 years in Italia in total, and out of all these years, this one was the worst.  
>I woke some morning feeling strange, like I had been beaten or something. Other times I wake up with scars I don't remember getting. My vision had gotten out of control to the point it made Volpe want to send me away to Mario and the worst part was, I dreamt of Ezio and Federico, a lot. Last night's dream was so realistic, I felt as though he was really there, like he did care I was hurt, like I could actually touch him. He was so warm and the smell off his clothes seemed so real.<p>

I shook my head hopping to shake away last night dream, and sat at one of the chairs at the table full of women. This is where most of the courtesans eat when they woke up, some of them would stay asleep until their lover came with fresh food. I sat next to one of the more dressed women, Tiadalma, she was new here and didn't know much Italian. Paola bought her from a slave trader who had come from Roma last month and she's been here ever since. A loud laugh dragged me out of my thoughts all too suddenly making me choked on my apple.

"Did you get a visit from your little French lover last night" I heard Jeroma say.

"What are you talking about woman?" I said to her.

"Your sucking and liking your apple like it was man's dick" I heard Tiadalma gasp next to me as I stared wide eyed at the woman who had just decided to put on clothes.

"That's disgusting"

"Why are you so affectionate with your apple, dear" said Rosalina. She was one of the younger girls here. I believe she was 17 now.

"Am not!" I said defensively. I don't know why I was being so defensiv, I really hadn't realized I was.

"You are so! Are you thinking of a lover?" She said to me.

"No" I was thinking of my best friends, I thought to myself.

"Then?" Said jeroma.

"Then I don't think that concerns you ladies" I said leaving the dreaded apple's core on the table. I swallowed the juicy fruit hard and wiped my mouth with the back of my sleeve.

I turned to rosalina "you know, you should add more rouge to your cheeks, it makes you look like a blushing virgin" I said to her.

"Ye be the only virgin in this room sweetheart" said the voice of Mathilda, a large, very popular old maid. I didn't like that woman, she gave me chills, I just casually smile at her and looked down.

The ladies kept talking for a sometime more, and I stayed in listened interjecting into their conversation every now and then. I really wasn't in a hurry to see Volpe anytime soon, and he was probably still very angry about yesterday, I had kept the codex I had stolen too, and I felt like it was trying to tell me something. Suddenly, the entire room went quiet, like a plague had just passed through, I looked up at Jeroma sitting directly in front of me and saw her staring behind me mouth wide open with some food sticking out.  
>"Very lady like, Jeroma" I said to her not paying mind to whatever captivated her, it might do the same to me.<p>

" So, that was you?" said a stranger's voice behind me. It was clearly that of a man's, a very familiar voice to be honest.

"Depends on who I was" I started speaking, my back turned to him. " By saying that was me so informaly, you'd be implying that you and I have met each other, and by the absence of a first or last name in this case it would be safe to assume that I may borrowed something of yours. If that's the case signore, you should know that I had every intention of bringing it back but..." I turned to look at the man behind me and realised why the women next to me where so quiet now. Because I was just as shocked as they were.

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><p><strong>Y'all have no IDEA how HARD it was to write this chapter, I had so much to PUT into it, and it's my longest chapter yet. I wanted to add more but I figured I should stop.<strong>

**I hope you all like that little reunion, I actually dreamt of it then turned on the computer to write it down but...my computer wouldn't turn on. I took it in to get it fixed, so this entire chapter was WRITTEN ON MY BLACKBERRY. I love my phone . I also tried to write the changes that happened in Isobella's character, did you guys notice anything different about her? Let me know?**

**But yeah, Then I would go to the library and fix it up every now and then, but at least it's finished now.**

**OMG WHO HAS SEEN THE REVELATION TRAILER! OMG EZIO IS SOOOOO OLD! OMG HE STILL LOOKS SOOO GOOD! Why can't real life be like that? BUT OMG! I litterly squeeled when I saw it and my little brothers looked at me like I was crazy, they said I couldnt touch the game when it came out looool.**

**I hope I can get the next one done a bit faster, work is draining my juice. Wish me luck**

**Merci beaucoups tous le monde! Je vous adore!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:I can't believe I actually posted this up on Monday! Woot woot, I'm happy I got this up now instead of later. I would like to thank all of those who put this is their favs and alerts. And never in the world did I think that my story would get reviews, like never ever. A bit thank you to lostforwords24, federicolover(I would like to read your story too please) Xxnikkigirl123xX, moon drama (I saw the devil may cry...never again dude.O.o) so nyo shi dea (it's girls generation.) Shopherina Auditore, nubia, panda-chan and jesswilliams.**

**You're reviews mean the world to me. XD**

**I can't believe I actually wrote 8 chapters so far...this one is a bit long too, hope you don't mind.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 8<strong>

The owner of the voice, a young man, was wearing the long white tunic with vertical red lines. He stood at the door with his arms crossed and head tilted. His eyes shone in excitement and he had loop-side grind playing on his face.

"You were going to bring it back but..." he said urging me to continue.

"Ezio" I said in disbelief. I got off my chair with a huge smile playing on my face. I probably looked like an idiot with my mouth hanging open like the rest of the ladies at the table there.

"You know him?" I heard Rosalina say.

He put his hand on his shoulder and tilted his head a bit. " Salve segnorina" said softly.

"Buongiorno" said Jeroma getting off her chair heading towards Ezio with her hips swinging from side to side. "What's your name Bello?"

"I'm Ezio Auditore da Firenze, and who might you be Bella?" he said grabbing hold of her hand and Bringing it to his mouth.

My lips pulled back in disgust watching him kiss the woman's hand, who knows where it was last night. She was a crazy lady, the wildest courtesan in the bordello, she never did shy away from anybody, and didn't have enough courtesy to care for her surroundings. A sudden image of her and Ezio on bed passed through my head causing shivers to run up my back. Maybe I should go into the confessionals with this...it's bound to give the priest nightmares, no way I'm suffering alone.

Ezio grabbed Jeroma by the waist and looked back at me. "So cara, where did you put this thing you say you borrowed from me?"

"Umm...right, I believe I may have misplaced it" I said walking away from the chair and towards him" but amico, what are you doing here"

"I thought you said last night that you missed me?" he said seductively. I heard gasps coming from behind me.

My face began to heat up a bit. "I don't remember saying those exact words" I said holding a finger up to my chin. I really never did say that...did I?

"Tell me something cara" he said walking towards me with Jeroma in his arms " what are you wearing?"

"I believe most people would call them clothes" I said crossing my arms "what about you, did you join the circus?" he let go of Jeroma and stopped in front of me with his hands on this belt.

"You could call it that, it almost makes the florin fall from the sky, in some way"

I walked closer to him until I was standing directly under him. I got on the tip of my feet to reach the man towering over me and whispered to him so one else would hear. "Didn't know you're father's business was so profitable, maybe..." A loud crash interrupted my trail of thoughts.

I looked passed Ezio to see what had caused the noise. First thing that appeared was a familiar dirty green bonnet, then came Matthew's familiar blue eyes.

"Ello luvs" he said in his weird English accent.

"What do you want" said Jeroma that now stood in front of Rosalina. Matthew was one of those men that didn't understand the meaning of the word no. He had a bizarre superiority complex, that exceeded that of his English heritage, he walked around thinking he was the best thing that happened to Italia and often made rude comment about the roman's and the Christian Christ. He turned to me and made eye contact. Shit...

"I just came to see my _sweetheart_" he said pushing Jeroma aside to get to Rosalina, whom he had developed feelings for recently.

"Who's that?" whispers Ezio to me when I wouldn't take my eyes off the man who was whispering English words to whimpering Rosalina.

"Pezzo di merda" I said softly. I took a deep breath and turned back to Ezio. "I'm glad you're here" I said to him with a smile, he smiled back at me and brought his hand up to my face. As he was about to touch it I moved back and liked my lips.

"I have to go" I said walking passed him. I suddenly felt a tug on my arm pushing me back,

"where you going?" I twisted my wrist away from Ezio's grip and put my hand together

"I have...ummm, things to do, errands to run,..." I turned around and walked to the door then turned back to him, "I'll see you soon, in about an hour, maybe sooner, maybe later, before the sun sets"

"Where?"

"Don't worry I'll find you"

"How are you going to do that genius?" he said crossing his arms.

I smiled at him and looked at him I the eyes "I'll just ask around for a big baboon wearing white clothes and a stupid cape" I said laughing running out of the door not waiting to hear his comeback.

As soon as I set foot outside the house, I made the first turn to my left and climbed the roof of the tavern right next to the bordello. I sat there for a while until I saw Ezio exit the house as well. I crossed my legs and sat on the building, my eyes following Ezio as he made a quick turn behind the bordello and disappeared into the crowd. Finally, after a couple minutes I got up continued towards my destination.

I remember when I first came to Firenze, there were barely any guard patrolling the streets, no archers on the roof, the biggest problem the town had were cunning thieves. But now, with Ezio claiming his father's place as an assassin, things were changing. To most people they never did, but for me, the life I once lived was but a foreign dream.

Ever since I started working for Volpe, I found out things that have been hidden from me. I finally knew who killed Federico and his family, though I didn't know why. I found out that the underground in Italia, knew a lot more about the city, than the de Medici family. I did things I never thought I would do and I didn't feel guilty about them, I stole, I bribed, I gambled, I lied, and I never once did I regret it. I felt hate I never thought I could feel, I wanted to hurt, to destroy. I wanted to take from the men responsible for this horror, everything that they took from me.

I finally got to the broken down house near the plaza, Volpe made a safe house underground and by safe, I meant you're safe if you manage to reach the underground sanctuary. I got inside the roof garden and pushed away the hay that was scattered inside, when I found the lever, I pulled and made my way inside. After going through all 3 levels of the old crumbling house, I made my way into the basement to get into a tunnel that had been built using the old catacombs. There were a couple of men that passed me as I got deeper into the sanctuary, no one gave me any attention, most were still mad about the night before, others treated me like some sort of bad luck charm, they felt as though the guild here was too good to let a traveling outsider like myself in.

Finally I got to the door that led to the underground sanctuary. I stayed in front on the door cautiously looking at it. Volpe was behind that door, and who knows how mad he was, I didn't want to provoke him further than I already had. I knew he was expecting me hours ago and I deliberately stayed away. I wiggled my toes inside my boots carefully feeling the parchment hidden inside of my left boot then took a deep breath. Without a warning, I found myself stumbling forward as I was hit by someone at the back of the head. I took my head and stared back at the culprit.

I saw Matthew laughing at me saying things in his mother language that I didn't care to understand.

"This is Italia" I said to him slowly so he would understand " We speak Italian here _cazzeggiare_( waste of space) " I turned around to get away from the man when he pulled me back.

He got into eye level with me " why should I, you people should be learning English don't you think?" he said with his foul breath passing my sensitive nose.

"I'm sorry your majesty, I wasn't born on a barbaric island full of uncultured men, I'll be sure to dumb down to your level one day" I said getting from his grip and opening the door before he physically hurt me.

I didn't know much of the English, I'm fact, I knew only what the French said, and they never said anything good about them. But after I met Matthew, I was sure that whatever the French said couldn't have been that far off how the English acted. He was a horrible man, he took joy in watching other people suffer, especially when that person was me. He never did hold back on me either, he would slap me, punch me, kick me if he wanted to, he said that he was superior to me and god loved his kind best, that all we're created to serve his kind.

"You finally decided to show up?" I heard a voice say, I looked up at Rafael, Volpe's right hand man and gave him a soft smile.

"Is he..."

He smiled at me and shook his head, "He has some things to tell you"

"You just said he wasn't mad" I said in between my teeth.

"He's not, even if he was, I'm sure you'd be fine little one" he said patting me on the head.

Rafael, he's a thief, but a nice man. Before he came to Firenze, he was a traveled with a circus, a knife thrower, but after his circus left him behind, without a single florin to live with, he started stealing and that's how he met la Volpe. Apparently, he knew papa Antoine, and for that reason, he agreed to teach me how to run across roofs and crates and such without stopping. Running free, without restrictions, wind blowing into your hair, it's the closest thing to flying a man can ever do.

I entered deeper into the sanctuary and walked past the many people gambling until I came inside the room that Volpe usually stayed in.

"Messer Gilberto?" I said quietly entering the room.

"Sit down" I heard behind me. I sat where I was on the floor with my legs crossed. "On the chair" he signed

I got up and dusted myself off and sat. He quietly made his way towards the table in front of me and sat on it with his arms crossed.

"I would expect the things that happen from anyone else child, just not you."

"What do you want me to say?"

"you remember what you told me two years ago?" He said staring down at me." You would do anything it takes to be part of the order?"

I nodded. "What of it?"

"If you had gotten caught yesterday, you know what it meant right?"

"Death, I know" Volpe had made us all swear a pact when we joined the guild, if anyone gets caught, kill yourself before you're hanged in public.

"How can you risk death at this point?" I looked up at him, Rafael was wrong, he was furious " I thought you loved Antoine and Amelia like your real parents? That you wanted revenge on Jean Valjean? Isn't that why you've been hanging around his son?" I looked up at him in chock.

Jean Valjean's son, Daniel, had been trying to court me the past couple of months, but never had he made an advance at me outside the bordello, I never gave him the chance to.

"Isobella, nothing is forcing me to keep you in this guild, I owe you nothing, I am doing you a favour by accepting you here. These thieves, they're dangerous, ruthless, and cunning, they may be loyal to me today, but you know how well money can talk to us" I nodded.

"Then when I say, you have 15 minutes to complete a robbery; you get in and get out in 14, capisco?" I nodded again quietly.

"Good, now where's the codex?"

"At the bordello" I lied to him

"Good, keep it there. I hear Ezio Auditore is back"

"He is"

"Keep an eye on him, find out why he's back, who he's looking for and why"

"You want me to spy on Ezio?"

"That's exactly what I want you to do" he said pushing himself off the table.

"Why me?"

"You're his friend, he trusts you. Find out what he wants, so we can start searching for it, god knows he needs our help," he said holding his head "then tell him about me when you deem it necessary to" he said as he sat on the chair in front of me and put his legs up on the table.

"You want me to lie to him, by telling him the truth?" I said in disbelief.

"That's very clever of you" he said in a quiet praise. Volpe always said that I was very smart, and that's mainly the reason he decided to tell me the truth. "Yes" he nodded.

I got up from my chair "anything else"

"Stay away from banks and guards for the next two weeks."

My jaw dropped "WHY!"

"Unless you want to hang at the plaza, steer clear from the guards, I don't want you teasing them or stealing from them." I lifted my finger up to speak but he put his hand up and silenced me before I could talk. "I know you're getting better at it, but with your hand in this condition you won't be able to get away from them and once they catch you" he made a gesture with his hand saying my head will be gone.

I quickly grabbed my neck as a shiver went through my spine."Capisce" I nodded to him and walked out of the small room he used as an office.

As I made my way to the door outside the sanctuary, I was met by Matthew again, his eyes we're flaming in rage, ready to kill me if he needed to. He said a couple of things in English again, the one word I understood in all of that was bitch...a word used to describe a female dog or an insult used like puttana. I gave him a very big smile and backed away slowly from him.

"What is it, _princess_, afraid of a barbarian like myself?"

I opened my eyes wide and put my hand over my mouth "what a horrible thing to say about yourself?" He stopped and gave me a snarl "Matthew, where did you learn such a word?"

"I'm lucky enough to learn such language from you" he said as he started approaching me again.

"Me! Bello! Why would I call you that!" He put his hand into a fist and took a step forward "I didn't call you that! No I was talking about... Umm the Scottish! No you're English, you're the definition of the word gentlemen"

"My grandfather was Scottish"

"That explains so much" I said under my breath. Suddenly he came running at me with his fist under lunging forwards. I ran from him and straight into a piled up crates, I jumped over them and as he climbed up the last one, I flipped backwards on to the floor.

"Matthew!" I said to him looking back up at the man breathing angrily at the top of the crates " that's not very nice"

He started a long trail of English word that sounded very much like swears and jumped off the crates. I ran away from him again, his angry growl and weird words trailing behind me. Luckily a long rail that held the roof together came into view, I ran as quickly as I could on to the wall and used it as a boost, then twisted my body around and grabbed hold of the rail. Matthew stood under me frozen, I used the opportunity to swing myself over the railing and put my butt on it until it looked like I was sitting on it.

"Come down here!" he yelled with anger dripping from his voice. "You can't stay up there forever! So come down while I'm being nice" he was right, I needed to find Ezio soon and this bastard was delaying me and there was no way I was meeting Ezio with a black eye. I shook my head.

He started grumbling angry words again, his head scanning the area for something. This man's temper had brought forth an entire audience of thieves who found the idea of my small self being crushed by the English man amusing, some even started to place bets to see how bad I would be hurt.

"You know, Matthew" I said in my best English accent "I know Rosalina really well" the man stopped scanning the area and looked up at me. "And I mean I know her really well."I said holding myself of the railing crossing me legs.

I started speaking again when he didn't say anything. "She takes everything I say into consideration, she treats me like a younger sister. Imagine what she would think of you if she knew that you harmed her little sister"

His tensed suddenly and hid his angry yellow teeth under his thin lips. "You know, if I decided one day decided that you would do Rosalina some good, she would be inclined to listen"

"Are you saying that you to help me court my..." He said something in English again.

"I don't know, last I checked, you were trying to kill me"

"WHY WOULD I WANT TO DO SUCH A THING" he said holding his mouth in surprise. I slid down the railing gently and held it under my knees, then I flipped down to the ground.

"Be careful beautiful" he said lifting me up by the arm and dusting me off "you don't want to hurt yourself" I looked up at the man in surprise and backed away a little. "Do you really think you can change her mind about me" he said in a hopeful bright smile.

"You know the power of suggestion can change the world" I almost felt bad for the guy. "But you know, nothing in the world comes for free. You want something from me..."

"Yes sure! Anything! What do you need?" he said gently, his complete change of character was almost scary. I guess the man really loves Rosalina or maybe he was just stupid.

I smiled brightly at him "Ezio Auditore, where can I find him?" Although Matthew was one of the angriest men I've ever met, he knew a lot of things. He was able to fallow anyone without a problem because most people saw him as a crazy English man, barely worth the time of day. Also, he was loved by a lot of the other men in the guild and many came to share information with him.

"I saw him about 10 minutes ago at the market, he's still there probably, and he's looking for someone" he said in this strange Italian.

"Who?"

"Not sure, but that person is bound to be in the market place."

"Thank you" I said to him in English with an accent that made me sound like a child.

"Power of suggestion" he said to me

I nodded to him and smiled. "It can move mountains" I said to him exaggerating. A bit.

As I exited through the roof garden, I suddenly remembered Volpe's words. He was right, he didn't owe me anything, he was doing this for me from the goodness of his heart. Because he couldn't see a child suffer, he accepted to take me in and show me the essential to survive from day to day. He never treated me like a child though, he always put me in the worst situation and expected me to get out of it by myself.

"Hey you!" I heard an annoying voice day. "Get down from there!" I jumped down the building before the archer got a good look at me.

I continued on to the market place, the one I used to look at with such admiration. Aside from the chaos I caused there every now and then, the only reason I found myself at the market was to get whatever supplies were needed at the bordello.

I got to the gates of the market soon after I left the sanctuary, and started searching for the hooded man I was meant to spy on.

The market place was as full as usual, most people were so busy that they didn't spare their neighbouring stalls a single stare. Others were so busy dealing with vendors, they barely noticed the thieves stealing their money pouches. I noticed some foreign vendors as well, some selling north African nectarines, others selling some oriental fruits I was too scared to taste, and a few I'd seen at Roma once selling those long yellow things. What did they call them, bananas, yes, I love bananas, they were good.

I scanned the crowd for Ezio's hooded figure, it couldn't be that hard to find him, he was rather tall, and his clothes were very distinctive, so finding him shouldn't be so hard. I saw a couple of familiar faces, one was the lady that owned the next door tavern, another was Annetta's neighbour. I saw a couple of heavy pouches hanging from some people that we're just begging to be taken, but still no sign of Ezio. I looked up the pillars over the stalls, maybe he would be there since he was looking for someone, but still no one. If I'm not exaggerating, it took less than 5 minutes to get here from the sanctuary, and already Matthew said he's seen him here about 10 minutes ago. Then if he was already gone, my search was hopeless, he could circle the city in 20 minutes.

I sat at a bench overlooking a good part of the market, there were still a couple of blind spots, but if he was still here, I would see him walk by. I looked around the bench, I was sitting next to a woman and behind her...I couldn't help but smile as I saw a man with a white hood sitting on the other side of the woman.

I got off the bench and got in front on Ezio. "You know, you're not very subtle" I said to him.

He chuckled at me his head still facing down and his hands together "you could have fooled me, you looked like a lost puppy"

I gave him a small hit on the head then his head sprung up. I hadn't really hadn't looked at him correctly since I last saw him, "what are you doing here?" I asked him as he got up.

I looked up at him, his face still looked somewhat young, but there was a soft shadow growing on it. He got a bit taller too, his once long arms and legs turned bulky and muscular. He looked like a man

"Looking for a thief" even his voice sounded manly.

"You found one" I said to him.

"You're a thief?"

"Sure...I have a tendency to take precious things from people, mostly men"

"Really?" He said with his eyes brows raised up. "what?"

I put my hand over my chest. "Their hearts, I put my hand on them, take it out! Then just stomp! Stomp! On them." I said trying to keep a straight face while ridiculously stomping my foot on the floor.

"Somehow I find that hard to believe" he said with a blank look on his face.

"Don't make me hurt you." He gave me a small smile and ruffled my hair and put his arm around me shoulder.

"What are you really doing here mon ami?" I said walking ahead of him.

"Like I said, I'm looking for someone" I turned around and started walking backwards facing him.

"Who? I could help, you know I know a lot that goes on in the city"

"I'm sure I'll be fine" he said looking at the roofs. "I've lived here all my life"

"A lot has changed the past two years cheri" I said as I bumped into a big man wearing some really shiny clothing. He pushed me forward until I faced Ezio closely.

He pulled my hand and pushed me under his arm holding on to me closely. "I know" he said quietly.

My eyes shifted to the stalls as we kept walking, Ezio was still trying to find this person in the market, I really didn't understand why he was so reluctant, I only wanted to help.

"Ezio?" He looked down at me "you seam really keen on protecting me right now"

He smiled at me "And what if I am?"

"Are you really?" There was a moment of silence that passed between us, I carefully looked up to meet his fiery gaze.

"I won't let anything happen to you" he said in all seriousness.

"You wouldn't let me go hungry and alone right?"

"Even after I die, I wouldn't"

"Well" I said re-collecting my thought "right now...I'm...hungry" I said swallowing my saliva to quench my dry mouth." Feed me." He looked down at me surprised, his eyes furrowed in interrogation and his mouth slightly open.

"I'm serious, I'm really starving, I don't get fed enough as you can see" I said pointing at my cheeks.

Suddenly, he broke down into laughter and put his hand over his eyes. He pinched the bridge of his nose his nose and let out a deep breath."What do you want to eat?" He asked looking down at me.

I smile and looked at the foreign food stand right in front of me" I want a banana"

"A what?"

"A banana" I said like it was the most obvious thing in the world "That yellow thing" I said pointing forwards.

We walked to the stand and I tugged out one of the more ripe bananas, it was yellow and brown and soft. "That will be 15 florins sir" said the man with a weird accent.

"For the entire pack?" Asked Ezio

The man shook his head "For just one sire." I tried to avoid his gaze as I started to peel my banana.

"I'll take one as well" he said between his teeth giving the man money. I took a bite of the fruit and looked up at him smiling. He gently nudged my head and turned to his fruit.

"So, what have you been up to, other than killing in style!"

He gave a small chuckle and started to tell me about his life, how Monteriggioni was, and how he was planning to rebuilt the city. I stopped listening after my eyes caught the gaze of the man wearing the shiny clothes I had bumped into, I looked down at his abdomen and saw a couple of large pouches hanging from them. Luckily he was making his way towards us again with his head in the stars. I shoved the rest of the fruit in my mouth and threw the peel behind me. I slowed my pace a bit until I heard the big crash I had been waiting for. I turned around and looked at the man sprawled on the ground with his colourful shiny robe around him and a woman he took down as he fell. Quickly I ran over to the man and went to his aid.

"Messer, are you ok?" I said pulling him up. My arm snaked around his mid section and I tugged off the first pouch."You should really be more careful" I said as I tugged down the other one. I dusted the man off with my free hand as I tugged down the last one. The man stood silent not saying a word. I looked up at him "are you alright messer?"

He pushed his hand away from me. "Get off of me you dirty creature" I backed away from him with my arms behind my back and gave him a small bow. The man gave me one last dirty look and moved away, I turned from him rolling my eyes and put the pouches under my bodice and one in my boot.

"Sorry about that" I said joining Ezio. "What we're you saying?" I said pushing him away from the crowd.

"I was talking about the vineyard..." he said slowly, I think he saw what I did, because he looked at me like I had done something wrong.

"Let's get out of here Ezio, it's getting really crowded"

He gave me a strange look "I still have to find..." he said to me.

"You can find, who ever you're looking for, later, there are going to be more guards around the market now and it's dangerous for you." I interrupted him.

He gave out a loud sign and allowed me to drag him out of the market. We walked in silence a bit until we got to the other side of the palazzo della signoria when I got a crazy idea.

"What do you say to a race?" I said looking up at Ezio.

"You want to race me?" He said chuckling a bit.

"I do," I said letting go of him."In fact, I bet you 50 florins that I get to that hay stack near the wall before you." I said pointing towards a small house on the other side of the city.

He stared at me in disbelief. "And where are you going to get 50 florins?"

"From you obviously" he held his head up high and looked at me like I was joking. "I never said I would lose?" I said with a grind.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, I happen to be one of the fastest men in Monteriggioni"

"This is Firenze amico, I practically own this city after the Lorenzo de Medici."

"I don't know, I would feel bad taking money from you"

I put my hand in his stained leather armour. "Are you afraid, Ezio Auditore da firenze?"

"For you I am"

"Then put your florins where you're mouth is my feathered friend"

"Woooo, if you say so my short legged friend" he said in excitement.

"Alright, now I'm talking about the hay stack at the house near the walls, not the one in the barn! Capisce?"

"Capisco, so on the count of 3," he yelled.

As I heard him say tre, I jumped up in joy and ran to the nearest house, I quickly climbed up and began jumping from roof to roof. I often raced some of the thieves when I was learning how to free run, back when they treated me like a little kid. I had lost many time before, but lately, I got a lot better. I was short and small, I didn't eat much, and I was always hungry, and that made me really weak, but also really fast. I took great pride in my speed, it was the only thing about me that never failed, and that I knew would work no matter what.

Finally I saw the fence of the house with the hay, and Ezio a little behind me, I picked up speed as much as I could and flipped over the fence with no hands and straight into the edge of the hay. I turned around to face Ezio as he jumped off the building and rolled on his back to break his fall.

"Don't break your back old man." I yelled at him.

He jogged his way towards me breathing heavily. "You...you...cheated!"

"How would I do that!"

"You took a shorter route... and left me to the longer one." He straitened his back and looked down at me. "Let's start again, you and me, another race, to the bordello this time." He said glaring.

"You don't want to do that, Ezio. One bet with me is more than enough" I said to him.

"No, I do, I bet you that I can get to the bordello before you." He's always been competitive, guess that still hasn't changed.

"Are you sure? I live there you know" I tried to warn him.

"Are you afraid you'll lose?" he taunted me.

I gave him a big grind. "Alright then, since you're challenging me that's 150 florins for me if I win...again, and if you win I give you 50." I said getting into position.

"WHAT!" he crossed his arms " why would you only pay me 50 florin?"

"Because, carro, I only bet 50 florins that I would win this race and I did. You, however, are challenging me once again, so that's 100 florins for challenge numero 2 and if you add the 50 that you already owe me now, I believe that makes 150 florins."

He stared at me with his mouth open for a second. "Is money all you can think of?" he said to be suddenly.

"I need to make a living too" I said leaning on the house. "So, what will it be, you want another race or are you just going to give me the money now?"

"Don't think I'll make the same mistake twice, bella" he said to me.

"You already did amigo."

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><p>Ezio had always been competitive, back when he was younger, he never actually took time to analyze the given situation, he just wanted to win. I can't really say he changed much ever since. I knew passages to the bordello that not many in the city knew, when Ezio took to the roofs, I took to the ground and used old tunnels to get there. Needless to say, I got to the bordello a good minute before Ezio came into the house, I handed him a glass of water and let him catch his breath. I waited a while before making fun of him again.<p>

"That will be 150 florins please"

He glared up at me. "Double or nothing" he said breathing in deeply.

"Another race?"

"No! No, you're tricky, I got it. Something else..." He said looking around the room until his eyes spotted something. "You play chess right?"

"Ezio..."

"You know how to play, yes or no?"

"I do"

"Then let's play, double or nothing"

I gave out a loud sign and sat in front of him. I turned the board around and let him with the whites.

"You can start"

"Ladies first". He said attempting to turn it around.

"No ladies here" said stopping him. "You start, you're the guest."

He moved one of his peons first, I followed, and then another and I moved a knight. I tried playing along with him, not making any wild moves, and kept it safe. I was actually really good at chess too, ever since I learned how to play, not many had been able to beat me, in fact, many people came here just to play against me. Whenever I managed to bruise a man's ego enough, one of the girls would come along and console them, it had sort of become a good way to make business.

About 5 minutes into the game, Ezio had already taken 4 of my pawns and one of my knights. I had one of his towers, a knight and his queen. he had been taunting me the entire time, saying I would lose, and that he was unbeatable.

I moved my bishop facing his king diagonally. "Check mate." I called out.

"What!" He said looking at his board."No, my king can take your peons"

"You could, but that would make your king vulnerable to my bishop, if you don't move your king however, my pawn can take you. Now, if you move your king from the pawn then my queen will get you, and if you move your king forward, my knight will have his head. So..." I said putting down his king. "Check mate."

He got up and shook his head, I saw his eyes rolling from under his hood and his nostrils flaring. I felt kind of bad for him, he wanted to win and he picked the two things I was really good at.

"Don't be a sore loser Ezio, a bet is a bet"

"A bet is a bet but this...you tricked me!" He yelled his brows furrowed in anger.

"I did not trick you! I tried to tell you." I said to him getting up.

"No, no, you had this all planed out. You know how competitive I can get."

"I asked for one race" I said holding a finger up. "Only cause I wanted to run from the market place. You're the one that got overly exited"

"You knew you would win that race, and that I would ask for another, so you cheated. And now this, a chess board conveniently placed in front of me, and you just had to let me start so I wouldn't suspect you. You had it all planned."

"You're a fucking lunatic. Keep your fucking money, I don't want it."

"You're unbelievable, you should be ashamed of yourself, making a bet with a man and cheating in the process to make yourself look better."

I pushed the chair away and turned to the angry assassin."You didn't change one bit, you're still that whiny little bastard that can't see past his own ego" I reached into my pouch and took out a handful of florin."You can keep all your money, I don't need it! HERE!" I said slapping the money on the table "that's for the banana! Get yourself a new cape!"

He turned around and gave me a snarl. "I don't want your stolen money"

"Oh like your blood money is better," I can't say this was new, Ezio and I fought all the time, but this just got personal. "At least no one lost their life when I got this."

I heard a door open and Paola appeared with her face half painted with makeup. "Isobella, what's..."

"Why was I so happy to see you anyway, you're still a little bastard, vaffanculo assino! Who does he think he is coming in here and insulting me!" I said storming passed Paola.

"Learn some manner, rifiuti!" I heard him yell after me.

I got myself cleaned up before the sun set, changed my clothes into something more appropriate and decided to stay in my bed. I didn't really want to do anything anymore, I just wanted to lie down and get some rest. There were too many things running through my mind, and Ezio just made matters worse. Never once did he take my feelings into consideration, he was so busy trying to prove a point he ended up sounding like a culo in the end. I didn't even know if he was serious or not, but I honestly wanted to rip off his head, just to get the satisfaction of knowing I did it. I don't even feel bad for spying on him anymore.

The brothel had started activity already, there was loud music playing and some laughs in the corridors. Regardless of how high up my room was, I could still hear the people rushing in and out. My door swung open suddenly and in came one of the courtesans.

"Come on pecina, someone's asking for you" said the woman

I sat up on the bed lazily. "Do I have to?" I whined.

"I'd be grateful to you if you could. I've been trying to get to that man for ages now." Said the woman at the door I didn't care to identify.

"He's back, AGAIN?"

"Seams like he's only interested in playing with you," I got off the bed and fixed my tunic, I flattened my braided hair without looking in the mirror and walked into the main room.

As I got passed the people hiding in corners without peeking, I found the man in question sitting in front of full board studying it.

"Messer Sullari!" I exclaimed putting on a fake smile. "How wonderful to see you yet again"

"Yes, yes..." He said his eyes studying the playing field. "Sit, let's play" he said no looking up at me, gesturing me to sit with his hand. "Tonight, is the night I beat you"

I looked up at him "Care to bet on that messere?"

He finally looked up at me with a single brow raised. "Do you take me deaf and dumb, child?"

I let out a small giggle and started the game. "Never!"

"Who even bothers to take bets with you anymore? I swear if you were a boy, I would take you in as my own son and make you play against kings"

I smiled at Messer Sullari, he was a fairly nice man, he's come from Roma where he owns a brothel his sister manages and only came to Firenze on business. However he saw me playing chess one night and decided to play against me, and in all honesty, he was horrible at the game. He'd been coming and going for about a month now and he had made it his mission to beat me at my own game, and though I admit he had gotten much better, he was starting to become predictable and boring, maybe even a little infuriating.

A couple of games later, I finally told the man I was too tired to continue and he let me go. I went to the kitchen to eat some food before going to sleep. I was always hungry these days, and there was never enough food for me to eat here, most of it would be taken by the costumers. I stuffed my face with whatever food I could find and gulped down some water. I snuck out of the kitchen before I was caught and ran to the corridor leading my room.

Before running up the stairs to my room, I felt a sudden tug on my arm and got pulled into a dark corner of the room. Suddenly, I felt an arm snake around my waist pulling me closer to a warm body and a hand pull my face forward meeting a pair of warm soft lips.

* * *

><p><strong>so who is this person kissing my Isobella? any guess?<strong>

**This is more of a transition chapter, just to show Isobella's everyday life. It was actually pretty hard to write, a bit of a pain in the arse actually. I had the idea scribbled down on a piece of paper and when I actually sat down to write, nothing came to mind. For those of you expecting romance between Ezio and Isobella right away...she's only 13...so yeah... and as you saw, they're at each others throats, but they don't hate each other.**

**For those of you who are questioning her character, just know that right now, she's still young and she's mostly doing this for the thrill and excitement. She doesn't understand the dangers behind all the plotting, and after what she saw and heard, she has a very bad notion of right and wrong.**

**In the next chapter, I will finally write about how Amelia passed away, and who, where and why Isobella's real parents are.**

**Also, my mind is in Venice right now, with an older Isobella, and then Rome with a dead Isobella. So I'm really lost...**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I tried to keep it as light-hearted as possible.**

**Review por favour!Cio!**

**Ps...anyone seen Inception? I just saw it and got what all the fuss was about...in fact...this...is INCEPTION!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: I have absolutely no excuse for posting this late. I guess I can say writers block and I feel absolutely horrible for leaving you all in such a cliff-hanger. It's sad really cause I had the first couple of paragraph of this chapter for a while now but nothing else came into mind.**

**And this was probably the hardest chapter to write I will like to thank you all for the reviews, honestly they mean the world to me and I seriously doubt I will have any readers anymore after making y'all wait for so long. All I can say is I'm sorry and I know I probably suck!**

* * *

><p>Chapter 9<p>

I smile crept up my face as he began sucking on my bottom lip. His right hand still caressed my face as his other hand pulled me closer. I pushed myself away from the boy and looked up at him.

"What are you doing here?" I said with my back against the wall.

"I came to see you" he said to me in his French accent.

"I thought you went back to Paris" I said whipping a bit of saliva off his bottom lip. He moved my hand away and went back to kissing my lips again. "Mmm, no" I giggled as I pushed him away.

"I came back as fast as I could for you" he said holding me closer.

"Daniel" I giggled at him looking into his beautiful green eyes with my brow lifted in doubt.

He gave me a soft throaty laugh and got closer. "Fine...It was too cold there" he said with his eyes looking away.

I couldn't help but actually give out a light laugh as he looked down at me with rosy embarrassed cheeks. Daniel was a good boy, he really was. He was nice and sweet and very different from his father, Jean Valjean, the man that killed my mother. I met him at the bordello about a year ago, while reading outside in the garden and he mistook me for a boy and made some rude remarks about the girls. Naturally I got angry and started insulting him and his upbringing, calling him a French Bastard and such. A small fight had broken up then and he gave me a black eye, then when he realised I was a girl, he spend the rest of the evening apologising, all in while insulting me. When I first found out his identity, I was horrified, I wanted to kill him, hurt his father like he hurt me, but I had never taken a life before. Somehow, Paola convinced me there are ways to hurt people that aren't necessarily physical and urged me to try a different approach. A couple of months later, I found myself in a bit of trouble with some mercenaries that were from out of town, and Daniel helped me get away, and we've been friends ever since.

He started to push me towards my bedroom while still holding on to my waist, his mouth was nibbling my ear while he whispered some sweet words in French.

"Daniel...I'm exhausted, if I go in there, I'm going to sleep." He put his head into my hair and moaned. "Daniel..."

"I just want to sleep with you in my arms" he said pushing me closer to him.

I took a deep breath and snuggled into his neck. "I'm a little sick too" I whispered. Over time, I've come to know a lot about him, for instance, every time I coughed, he would take a couple steps away from me cause he hates being sick. Another thing was he had never tried to get me into beds to take care of his urges. He was a young man too, only 16, and the reason he had come to the bordello first was to take care of them. I pushed myself away from him and looked into his eyes.

"I want to sleep"

He brought his head forwards and gave me a kiss in the forehead. "You don't want me tonight then"  
>He pouted when I shook my head. I smiled at him seeing him pout again, I shook my head again, he opened his eyes wide and gave me the cutest puppy dog eyes that just made me giggle.<p>

"Please go home" I said to him pushing him away.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" He said. I nodded to him and watched him go back down the stairs. There were time when I felt guilty for not doing anything to him, I wanted to hurt him, I did, but, he wasn't the one that killed my mama. I wasn't even sure I was doing the right thing when I smile at him, when I hug him, when I kiss him...when I sleep in his arms. Paola says we learn from our mistakes all the time, that's how we grow. And this relationship I had with Daniel, this 'friendship' was a mistake, I know that, I'm hoping to learn from it. But what if this mistakes ends up costing me more than I'm willing to give?

I pushed my door open and jumped on my bed to cuddle with my fox like pillow. It felt nice to have the soft cotton fabric against my skin, it was so warm and comforting, and it felt like I was back in mam...Amelia's arms. I missed her so much.

"Who was that?" I heard a deep voice say. I jumped off the bed and got into a crouched position. The entire room got darker than before, the light of the moon shining through the windows turned into nothing but small pulsating halo's and the sounds and music coming from the house got louder.  
>"Who was the boy?" I turned around the room to find the owner of the voice but I was met with a pair of yellow glowing eyes.<p>

I ran to the glow hoping to hurt it somehow, but quickly, I was thrown off balance and on to the bed where the owner of the glowing eyes grabbed a hold of my wrists and pinned them to the bed, with the rest of his heavy body held me down.

"Isobella" Suddenly, the glow in his eyes disappeared and a series of horizontal blue lines appeared on his body making him shine slightly. The lines looked like a blue ribbon wrapped around the body moving downwards, illuminating his brown eyes, nose, and scared lips.

"Ezio?" I breathe out trying to struggle away from his grip. "You're hurting me" I said softly to him.

"Sorry" he said letting me go and moving off of me.

As I sat up, I felt a sharp pain passing through my head, like I was hit by a flaming arrow that passed through my skull. I doubled over myself in pain clutching to my head, there was so much noise, and everything was so loud. I could hear screams and moans, people yelling at each other, dogs barking. I was like I heard every person in the entire city, like every noise they made was increased tenfold and made its way into my head.

"Aaaah" a cry of pain came out of my mouth before I could stop it.

"Isobella" it was probably Ezio's voice, but it sounded so big and inhuman. I clutched to me head harder trying to keep it under control. Never in my life did it anything hurt me so badly. I felt a hot hand in come in contact with my skin, I couldn't help but flinch away.  
>My body started shaking and the sounds got louder. "Don't worry, Isobella, it's ok" I whispered to myself. "There is no danger" I could tell there were warm tears coming out of my sockets. "There is no danger" I could feel my entire body shaking in fright, my skin started to prickle and pinch. Then without a warming, everything just gathered at my gut and knocked itself out of me leaving me gasping for air.<p>

"Isobella! Isobella!" I heard Ezio's voice say, it had gotten back to normal thankfully. I took a deep breath and looked up at him.

The world around me had returned to its natural color, the room was slightly illuminated by the moonlight making everything comfortable and warm. I felt my head being picked off the bed and onto the crease of his arms.  
>"Hey! Bella" said ezio with his gloved hand caressing my skin. I looked up at him and saw that his hood was down and his face was partially illuminated by the moon."Isobella?" He said in a worried voice. "What wrong?"<p>

I brought my finger up to my lips "hush" I said softly.

Although everything had gotten back to the way it was, there was still this hard throbbing in my head.  
>"What happened? Are you alright?" He said again.<p>

I pushed myself off of him and put my head on my pillow. "I'm alright, you just...you gave me a bit of a fright." I said holding on to my injured wrist.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"sssht, it's okay, I'm alright" I said again trying to make sense of what happened.

"That wasn't alright?" He said loudly "what was that"I looked up at him, he was clearly worried, all the anger that was in his voice this afternoon had left him.

"I don't know" I said honestly. "I just...I got scared."

He moved closer to me and put a hand on my forehead. "That wasn't just scared" he felt my cheeks also, whipping whatever tears were left on my cheeks. "Are you sick?"

"Maybe" I said with my eyes getting heavy. I looked up at him and saw him taking off his boots and cape. His armour fell to the ground also as well as the big white and red robes he wore leaving him in his chemise and pants. He got on my bed "Come here" and opened his arms to me, quickly I got into his arms and wrapped mine around him.

"I'm sorry," he was caressing my hair. "I really didn't think...that...would happen"

"It's okay" I whispered."It happens"

"This happened before?" He said looking down at me.

"No..."I took a deep breath. "Not like that"

"Then how does that happen?" he said pushing me away from his chest and looking down at me.

"I don't know it's hard to explain"

He pulled me closer to him and started petting my face lightly, almost like a gentle feather was caressing it."Try me" he whispered.

I looked up at him, I didn't know what to say to him that would make sense. Most people would call out witch if they saw what happened to my eyes. Even Volpe had a hard time understanding what I was telling him, when he saw my eyes turn black for the first time he was so shocked he actually stumbled back a bit. Later, he figured out it was the vision and told me how to 'stop' the vision, but even he wasn't sure.

"Isobella" he whispered to me again.

"I really don't know how to put it into words." I said truthfully.

"Just tell me what made you so scared." I could feel his eyes burning on my head, but my eyes stayed on his chest. He pulled me closer with his hand caressing my cheek.

"It's not that..." Maybe he would know what I'm talking about. " It's...me?..." I looked up at him, he was waiting for me to stop stuttering and start talking. "Whenever...whenever my body...whenever I feel like I'm about to get attacked, or threaten or in danger...the world turn dark." I looked at him the eyes. " And I don't mean figuratively, I mean literally, black." I scratched my head trying to find the words to complete this without sounding crazy. " And whatever is attacking me, or has these ill intentions, glows...red" I finished.

His hand had stopped stroking my cheek "The world goes black and the wrong doers glowing red?" He asked quietly as if to digest what I was telling him.

"I know! It sounds crazy, but it's true...I don't know how I can show you. But last night, when you came in, you were glowing in red, that why I attacked you."

"And tonight?" he asked me.

"All I saw was...glowing eyes, your eyes were glowing yellow. And then when you held me down...there ummm, there was this glowing blue ribbon around you" I said tracing my finger on his face all the way to his upper lip."I don't blame you if you think I'm mad" I said tapping on his lip

"I don't" he said grabbing my hand in his own " It's the sixth sense."

"The sixth sense?"

"Our sixth sense allows us to act upon our instincts. It helps us sense how people and objects and how we relate to them, which manifested as a coloured glow, much like a person's aura." He said to me in an automatic manner. "Like you said, the world turns dark, and that because our senses are focused on certain people. Those who want to help us glow in blue, while those who want to hurt us glow red."

"Is it normal?" I whispered to him. "Is there something wrong with me? Us?"

"To me, it's normal, for my father, it's... it was normal." He started again. "It makes what I do much easier."

I took a deep breath and changed the morbid subject. "So the entire person glows?" He nodded " then why were your eyes the only thing glowing right now?"

"I don't know, I think maybe different people see things different ways. Are my eyes glowing now?" He said looking down at me. I shook my head no. "Are you using your vision?" He whispered to me.

"No"

"Try it"

"I...I don't know how" I said very quietly. "It just happens, at random times. Like in the mornings when there is too much sun on my face, or when I'm given a fright..."

"Did your father have it?" He asked me.

"I don't know."

"He didn't tell you? He didn't show you how to use it?"

"Pap...Antoine...isn't my real father" I said looking up at him.

He jolted off bed and looked down at me in surprise. "What!"

"I was...I guess I can say adopted by Amelia and Antoine at the request of my...real father"

He sat straight on the bed and looked down at me with his legs crossed. "Cara..."

"I didn't know until recently" I was afraid to look at him straight in the eyes, I felt ashamed, lost, discarded, all I could think of, was why in the world would you give your child up? Over the years I had created many scenarios in my head, neither made sense, I was afraid and yet I wanted, no needed to know who he was and I would ask him why he abandoned me.

"Cara...I'm...I don't know..."He gave out a loud sign "what happened?"

He crossed his legs on the bed and waited for me to answer. I pushed myself off the bed and grabbed my animal pillow and hugged it close to me. I sat in silence for a couple of second, trying to collect my thoughts, but where to begin.

"Bella" he began "if you don't want to... talk about it, you don't have to" I looked up at him. "But I'm really lost as to what happened. All I heard when I was in Monteriggioni was that the Marino's were killed. You have no idea how happy I am to see you're still alive and well. But I'm curious and I would like you to be the one to tell me what happened."

I wanted to pour my heart out to him, tell him everything I saw, point fingers at those responsible, ask him to kill them, I wanted to name names and him to know, what Jean Valjean put me through. I really did, but when most people hear about what happened to me, they tend to feel sorry for me, they treat me like a dog that's been kicked in the stomach grasping for air. Ezio is the last person I want to get that look from.

"It's nothing..." I started to say but I was cut off my Ezio's words.

"Do you not trust me?"

"I do!"

"Then talk to me"

I gave out a loud sigh and dropped my upper body on to my legs, hugging my feet. It was a comfortable position to think, it gave just enough air to breathe and it was warm enough to make me feel protected. "Where do you want me to start?" I whispered to him.

"The beginning is always nice" he said softly.

"The beginning..." Where did this story begin? I didn't know, maybe the day I met Ezio? But that was too far back, the day of the execution? Even that seemed to be ages ago, and if I did start the story there, how would I answer the questions he had knowing there was a void in my mind. There was still the thought that my story had yet to begin. Volpe always said he saw my life taking me further than any other person he meet, so where was my beginning? "The beginning? Maybe it's the day that...that papa Antoine...passed. It's the only beginning that makes sense" I said looking at him.

I sat up and crossed my legs on the bed. "He had come back one night bleeding, stabbed just above the heart, and he was about to tell me he wasn't my father..." I told Ezio everything I could say. I told him how we buried papa outside the city when he passed away. I told him how mother acted strangely after papa's death, I also told him about Palestine.

As I had gotten to the attack that happened outside the gates, my mind started to wander into that evening. The night my childhood died, the night I had come to know more than I wanted to, the night I lost all hope in humanity...

)(.)(.)(

"Segnorina Marino! Segnorina! Volpe wants to see you" I slowly looked up at the man next to me, he was short with curly salt and pepper hair, he smelled like piss and wore the dirty green clothing most thieves wore. "Isobella Marino?" he said to me again. Have him a small nod. "Let's go" he said grabbing my hand, half dragging me out of the church.

As the fresh air hit me I had suddenly woken up from my daze and started struggling. "Messere! Messere!" I yelled at him. He stopped for a second and looked back at me. "Where are you taking me?"

He looked down at me and smiled at me. Not a bad one either, but a small genuine smile that inspire sympathy. He got down to me level and took one of my hands "Hold on" he said putting me on his back. As quickly as he settled me on his back, he started climbing the walls of the church to get to the roof. "Volpe sent me to get you" he said before breaking into a sprint.

I held on to the man I believed to be a thief as hard as I could without trying to breath in his foul smell. Very soon, I got so lightheaded to the point where everything was a blur, the houses seam to pass by in a flash and the air under passing through my skin made me feel like I was flying. The man landed on the ground outside the city walls only minutes after leaving the roof of the church.

Finally he stopped running and gently placed me on the ground. The world around me was still spinning, I felt like houses and buildings were still rushing by us. I stumbled around and fell on the floor hard, finally I gained enough control on my body to sit up straight and put my head in between my knees until the world was still.

I heard a pair of footsteps coming closer to where I sat, then a pair of hands that grabbed me from under my shoulders and brought me up to my feet. "Are you alright pecina?"

I looked up at the owner of the voice and immediately recognized his unique violet eyes."Messer Volpe?" I said quietly.

"Come, you're mother wants to see you."

A large smile appeared on my face, I was happy my prayers were heard, mama was still here! "Mama is okay?" I said to him, more a question then an affirmation.

He gave me a small smile, the same empathising smile I had gotten from the other man earlier. "Come, follow me." He said quietly.

I quietly fallowed him into the woods. The morning sun was just about to rise, the moon was still nowhere to be seen and the stars were long gone now. The sky was a dark shade of a light blue, but the branches covered most of the light that dawn had brought. As my eyes started to get familiar to the darkness of the forest, my mind started registering the area I was walking through. I could feel my heartbeat increasing; I could feel the blood rushing to my head almost too suddenly. I slowed down my footsteps. Something told me that I was being too naive and childish. Mother would have come to me if she was alright, she would run to me as soon as I set foot outside those gates and takes me away from this place, but where was she now?

"Pecina" I heard in front of me. I speed up to keep up with the man's long footsteps.

I could feel my bile coming back up to my mouth, the braid mother had done so perfectly was a complete mess, with hay sticking out from everywhere. My itchy dress was torn and wrinkled, my arm was still in pain from earlier, the blood of that guard had dried on my face by now. I must have looked like a story book witch. We finally got to where papa was buried, I could see the small cross near the tree made up of two small branches. Next to the tree was a figure with a dark cloak that looked a lot like the robes mama was wearing before we left. Volpe walked over to the figure and crouched in front of it, he looked at the figure with sad eyes then looked back at me and extended his arm forward as if to ask me to join him.

Slowly, I approached the man in front of me, secretly hoping that the cloaked figure was not someone that I knew. Volpe watched me silently as I took small shaky steps, patiently waiting for me to go to him, his arm was now on the foot of the figures. My eyes darted to the figure once more, my heart beat started to increase again, leaving me breathless. I stopped walking for a minute and took a deep breath, I need to be strong, I had to stop being so childish. I quickly walked up to Volpe, not daring to turn my back towards the tree.

"My child" I heard a small whisper say. "Bonita" I turned around

The quiet inaudible whispers of the figure behind me were scary, I slowly turned around and saw long hair hiding her face. I sunk down to my knees next to her and extending a shaking hand toward to her face.

"Mama"

She slowly looked up at me from behind her hair and gave me a smile "My child" though I couldn't see in the darkness of the forest, I could smell the harsh metallic stench coming off from her, she was bleeding, but where?

"Mama?" I got closer to her. She tightened the grip on her stomach making my eyes follow her hand, that's when I saw it. There, in the middle of her abdomen was this large handle buried deep in her core. Her hand grabbed hold of it almost as if to stop anything from coming out.

"BONITA!" She said a little louder. "Look at me" I didn't have to look at her face to know that it hurt her when she spoke. Hesitantly, I took my eyes off her wound and looked back at her face. I gave her a small smile, I wanted her to know everything would be okay, but tears started to run down my eyes like heavy raindrops.

"Sweetheart, keep your eyes on my face" I nodded. She gave me a light smile before she grunted in pain " ...listen to me" she said extending her hand towards me, "listen. I love you" she said sweetly.

"Mamaaaaa" I cried out loud finally, I couldn't take it anymore. Why me! You took my father away from me! Why mother too! I need her, she needs to be okay! The fates already abandoned me, why would Christ not save mama, why would he leave a young child all alone if your only there to save!

"Pecina" said Volpe grabbing me by the shoulders. "Listen to Amelia" I stopped cursing in my head and looked back at mama sniffing away my tears.

"bonita, I love you," she repeated " and no matter what happens, I will always love you. Will you always love me?" She asked me still struggling with her words.

"OF COURSE!" I yelled at her, how can I not love her, how could one not love their mother!"Always"

"Then forgive me," she whispered to me. She clutched to her wound harder and gave a low grunt.

"Forgive me...and Antoine...bonita"

"Mama, please, save your breath..." I tried to say but she shook her head still clutching to get wound.

"I cannot die without telling you...I love you sweetheart, but...but I'm not your mother."

My mind went blank for a second, wondering if I had heard her right. "Palestine" she whispered again. "That's where your father lives" I could still feel the tears coming down my face, and the hurt I felt seeing mama like this, but I didn't want to hear whatever she was trying to tell me. I didn't care.

"Ma..."

"After you we're born...your father was afraid for you, so he asked us to take care of you...To make sure, you...you never got hurt, but we failed. Bonita, I'm sorry." Her words started to become a static noise to me, a noise that was there, but that I didn't hear. I wanted to tell her it was okay, but the words didn't come out. I just sat there, like an idiot as she poured her heart out to me. I didn't want to hear that my real father was an assassin, I didn't want to hear that I was Arab, I didn't want to hear that he lived in Palestine, it wasn't important to me, but she just kept talking and I just watched her getting weaker by the breath. I scooted closer to her and held her by the hand, I gave her a slow lingering kiss on the cheek and whispered to her that I loved her. "I love you too, nina"

)(.)(.)(

I didn't like to think too much about that night, and telling Ezio the whole story while leaving out Volpe, gave me enough self awareness to keep me from crying. Ezio on the other hand seemed too shocked to say anything. I figure it's from the fact that he didn't want to hurt me or make me feel alone, but he certainly gave me that look I had been dreading to see. I couldn't see his face clearly, but I could tell from the way he caressed my hand.

"Than what happened?" he whispered.

"I managed to find me way back here" I half lied to him. "Paola was more than happy to take me in, and Annetta liked the idea of me being around women as opposed to you." I giggled to him. He stayed quiet not finding the idea as amusing as I did.

"As soon as I get done here, I'm taking you back to Monteriggioni with me" he said in a low feral voice.

"And if I don't want to go?"

"I'll put you in a bag and take you anyway" he finished for me.

A small smile crept up my lips as I threw myself back on the bed. I felt light, like a heavy smoke had lifted, like I could breathe clearly. It felt nice to have told Ezio what had happened that night, and as much as I didn't like talking about it, it felt like I could trust him. I looked up at Ezio, his arms were crossed over his chest and his brows were furrowed staring off into space.

"What is it?" I asked looking up at him from under my lashes. He looked down at me and gave me a weak smile, one that said he didn't want to evoke anything that might hurt me emotionally and he shook his head. "Come" I said motioning him to the pillow so he could sleep.

My eyes grew heavy as I felt the weight of his body on the bed. I could feel the heat radiating off of him, it was almost inhuman. He made soft hums as he sunk into his sheets mumbling what I believed to have been soft prayers. I listen quietly as I realised that he was saying some things in Latin, though I wasn't sure exactly what, Ezio never really seemed like the religious type it was almost scary, and now that he was an assassin, his faith still remained in question, at least in my eyes. I jolted out of my thought as I felt his finger brush my hair off my face and gave me a small caress.

"Goodnight" he whispered.

"Goodnight" I mumbled.

* * *

><p><strong>I know, short chapter compared to the 2 previous ones, but <strong>**I need ideas for the next couple of chapters! Although I know the main plot points I wanna focus on, I don't really have specific ideas for the smaller chapters, and I want to be able to write out the playfulness banters between Ezio and Isobella. Also, I know it's a lot to ask, but I desperately need a beta writer, someone to help correct the mistakes that I always see on these chapters and helps me point them out before it's too late.**

**Thank you once again for coming onto this dead "author's" story and please leave some reviews for me.**

**And again, to those who we're actually following the story, thank you and I'm sorry!**


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